Prince of Persia Redemption appears to be a canceled reboot that never saw the light of day – except footage of it has been online for eight years in one way or another. How no one noticed the three-minute presentation for a more cinematic take on the Prince of Persia franchise is puzzling, but it’s possible the video was uploaded but not publicly listed until much later. In any case, keen-eyed ResetEra user Chunchun made the discovery. Ubisoft hasn’t taken down the Prince of Persia Redemption footage, so check out the clip below.
Former Naughty Dog and Ubisoft animator Jonathan Cooper sounded off on Twitter, confirming the clip’s legitimacy. He added that the footage showcases a prerendered game pitch, not gameplay.
Wow – haven't seen this in ages. Amazing work from animation director Khai Nguyen (For Honor) and team. This target game footage (pre-rendered game pitch) inspired our own pitch for Assassin's Creed 3 as they did such a great job making it look like real gameplay. https://t.co/U9cy7v4fNp
— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) May 6, 2020
In addition to Cooper’s comments, the original ResetEra post pointed out that Ubisoft assistant technical director Marc-Andre Belleau actually commented on the video a couple years ago, bluntly asking, “Where did you get that?!”
Ubisoft Montreal would have overseen the project, which can most easily be compared to the God of War trilogy due to the tense third-person camera angles and the epic scale, as the protagonist can be seen using a crumbling city as platforming to take out a massive beast. Prince of Persia Redemption would have taken advantage of the series’s time-bending feature as well, with the player seemingly being able to use a rewind mechanic to reverse potentially game-ending circumstances.
There’s no telling if the game would have maintained a steady stream of cinematic gameplay sequences this grand throughout, but despite following the dull color aesthetic trend of the previous console generation, Prince of Persia Redemption looked promising. Of course, it’s hard to say if we’ll ever learn what caused Ubisoft to shut down plans for the game.
Fans have been clamoring for a new big-budget entry in the Prince of Persia series for years. Though Ubisoft has yet to deliver, some glimmers of hope have come in the form of smaller expansions and spinoffs, with the most recent examples being a For Honor crossover event and the Prince of Persia: The Dagger of Time VR escape room.
