Baldur’s Gate 3 Exec Michael Douse has posted online how Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown’s perceived failure is not the fault of its developers. Earlier this week Ubisoft announced that it had disbanded the team behind Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown for failing to meet targeted sales goals. While such a move may seem somewhat normal given the number of titles whose budgets often far outweigh initial sales or simply miss their intended demographic audience, there could be more to consider, or at least according to BG3 Director Michael Douse.
Something that those who have not played Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown might not currently know is that it actually received praise from not only gaming review media outlets but also players alike when it launched in January 2024. This is worth noting due to the fact the players can sometimes disagree with paid reviews which ultimately shows when a game doesn’t sell well. IGN gave it 4.4 out of 5 stars, it received a similar rating on PC Gamer, multiple threads from players on Reddit gave it praise, and it still has a rating of 85+ on Metacritic which Douse’s comments primarily reference. Criticism for the game’s lack of sales goes not to its developers but to Ubisoft management who made the decision for it to be an Epic Games Store exclusive.
If the statement “gamers should get used to not owning their games” is true because of a specific release strategy (sub above sales), then the statement “developers must get used to not having jobs if they make a critically acclaimed game” (platform strategy above title sales) is…
— Very AFK (@Cromwelp) October 23, 2024
Not the first time
This is not the first time that storefront exclusivity has been the root of controversy regarding a title launch and in particular, Epic exclusives but it is somewhat rare for a publishing company’s higher-ups to be called out for failed sales targets with such a decision. The Baldur’s Gate 3 exec clearly makes the point that if this game had also been released on Steam it would not have failed and while there’s at least one person who tried countering that point in the post’s thread, there is another recent release that experienced a similar circumstance, namely Alan Wake 2.
That sequel, while being Remedy’s fastest-selling title to date, had, over six months after release, yet to turn a profit for its developer who signed an exclusive publishing deal with Epic. It too has received critical praise from both media and players but fortunately, its publisher remains confident enough to support the team behind it. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney was recently asked about the two-sided approach used for gaining EGS users where it was admitted that although the free games are a big success, the exclusive titles are not always a winning strategy.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney (via PC Gamer):
- “We spent a lot of money on exclusives,” said Sweeney. “A few of them worked extremely well. A lot of them were not good investments, but the free games program has been just magical.”