Ubisoft cancels 6 games including Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, delays 7 more
Ubisoft announced the cancellation of six games in development, including the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, along with delays for seven other projects. The decision is part of a "major organizational, operational and portfolio reset" at the company.
Over the past two months, Ubisoft conducted a thorough review of its content pipeline, leading to a decision to "refocus its portfolio, reallocate resources and comprehensively revise its roadmap over the next three years." The company plans to focus on a "return to exceptional levels of quality on the Open-World Adventure segment" and strengthening its position in games-as-a-service.
As a result, Ubisoft "discontinued" six games that do not meet the new enhanced quality criteria and more selective portfolio priorities. Besides the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, four unannounced titles were cancelled – three new IPs and a mobile game. The sixth cancelled game has not been specified.
Seven other games were delayed to ensure enhanced quality benchmarks are met. Among them is an unannounced title originally planned for the fiscal year ending March 2026, now pushed to the following year. The game is believed to be the Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake, especially given that a listing for Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced appeared on PEGI's website last month.
Ubisoft chief financial officer Frederick Duguet explained the decision during a media call.
As part of the finalization of the reorganization, we went through a review of projects across December and January, with the current market evolution in mind, which is persistently more selective. You've seen the last quarter showing a never-seen-before level of competition. But when you are coming in number one, number two, with great content quality on a given segment, then you can have a very strong reward in terms of player reception and financial performance.
Duguet added that the company enhanced quality criteria to select projects capable of succeeding in the current market, stopping some games – including three new IPs – or giving additional time to projects with great potential. Ubisoft still has four new IPs in development, including the recently acquired March of Giants.
The Prince of Percia: The Sands of Time remake was announced in September 2020 after two and a half years of development at Indian studios Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai, with a planned release in January 2021. Following negative reaction to the reveal trailer, the game was delayed multiple times, and in 2023 development was handed over to Ubisoft Montreal, which created the original The Sands of Time in 2003.
In 2024, Ubisoft Toronto joined development. Before today's announcement, players expected the release before March 2026.
