Ubisoft appears to be taking videogame tie-ins to a whole new level with the planned development of a Prince of Persia videogame based upon the upcoming Prince of Persia movie, which is based upon the Prince of Persia videogame.
The Prince of Persia franchise, originally launched in 1989 for Apple, MS-DOS, Atari ST and other systems, is being “rebooted” by Ubisoft with an entirely new game set for launch in Fall 2008 that abandons the characters and backstory established in the 2003 release Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. A Prince of Persia movie, directed by Mike Newell and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, is slated to follow in 2009, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Prince Dastan and Gemma Arterton as the “feisty and exotic” princess Tamina.
In conjunction with that, according to GameDaily, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said the company is planning a second new Prince of Persia title, this one based on the movie and completely unrelated to the retooled version of the game. Speaking at the Ubidays 08 press conference in Paris, Guillemot said the game is currently planned for release at the same time as the movie, although other details have not yet been settled.
The article also speculates that Jordan Mechner, who created the original Prince of Persia as well as the Sands of Time relaunch in 2003, could return to work with Ubisoft on the movie version of the game. Mechner was not involved with Ubisoft’s latest update to the franchise, but handled scriptwriting duties for the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie and still holds the Prince of Persia IP.
“My goal in writing the Prince of Persia screenplay was not to copy the Sands of Time videogame storyline beat for beat, but rather to craft a new story that would live up to the genre of those classic swashbuckling, romantic action-adventure movies that inspired the games in the first place,” Mechner said in an earlier interview. “Whether or not you’ve played the videogame, the movie needs to stand on its own.”
