Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crownwas an excellent entry into theMetroidvania genre, earning loads of praise from fans and critics as one of the more solid titles to come out of Ubisoft’s repertoire within the last few years. Despite this, as we’ve recently learned, Ubisoft has decided to completelydisband the team.
Why exactly did Ubisoft do this? Well,they refused to let the team continue on a sequel because it would “cannibalize” the sales of the original, meaning they’d instead hope for a long-time sales tick forThe Lost Crownrather than use the team’s immense talent on a follow-up.
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This plan is an affront to any gamers hoping Ubisoft would attempt to facilitate this now well-respected team. As sadly expected,Ubisoft is once againmaking a decision that puts technical sales data over the actual quality of their products.
The Baldurs Gate Publishing Director, Michael Douse, thinks precisely that. In arecent poston X about the subject, he criticized Ubisoft for making these wild development decisions andcalled the entire push behind Ubisoft in its current form “such a broken strategy.”
Michael Douse points out that Ubisoft may not have tried to help the project become the breakout success we would have hoped for. Although the team put togetheran excellent game, theres a good chance Ubisoft had simply failed to sell it.
First, he describes how, due to the failure of other Ubisoft titles likeAvatar: Frontiers Of Pandora,The Crew Motorfest, andAssassin’s Creed Miragebefore the launch of The Lost Crown, we “can assume subscriptions were at a lull when [Prince of Persia] was released by 2024.”
Althoughlaunched on Steamin August, the game initially came out months before on Epic Games and through the Ubisoft subscription service in January. As Douse points out, not having so many people keeping their eyes on the platforms during those times may have led to a lack of sales on Ubisoft’s part.
Douse says, “the hardest thing is to make a 85+ game — it is much, much easier to release one.”The publishing failure of Ubisoft hits hard when it comes straight from the mouth of the publishing director of one of the most critically acclaimed andprofitable titlesof the past few years.
Although we can all wish for a fantastic game to be a financial success, with the marketing strategy of current AAA games, it feels harder and harder for them to do so when it honestly shouldn’t be.
The Threat Of Subscriptions
Subscription services have been around in gaming for so long that it’s not fair to say that they’re a new thing shaking up the industry. From Gamefly to the widely successfulXbox Game Pass, subscription services have helped people get a bang for their buck for years.
That said, when considering modern gaming subscriptions, companies are keen to push everything they have into arisky servicethat may or may not work out. As Douse explained in a follow-up post:
If the statement ‘gamers should get used to not owning their games’ is true… then the statement ‘developers must get used to not having jobs if they make a critically acclaimed game’ is also true.
This statement encapsulates exactly what the age of subscription services has led to. If we dive into the world of subscriptions and no one can truly own a specific game, then a critically acclaimed game starts to mean no more to a company than its other average products.
In a world where subscriptions and money drive the bargain,companies are taking the safe road, hoping for a consistent subscription-involved player base rather than hoping each individual title can make its money back.
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But what can you expect from the developers anymore? Withgames costing so muchto make and creating huge financial deficits when they even slightly fail to return profits, making games is truly a financial gamble.
Thereare ways to solve this, such as putting time andeffort into AA releasesand nurturing this consumer marketplace.But, as evidenced by this news and Michael Douse’s response, these major companies are hitting the point of no return.
If an acclaimed game like The Lost Crown can get struck down by its developers, it just makes us wonder, what’s next on the chopping block.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
WHERE TO PLAY
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown sees the return of this iconic franchise in the 2D Metroidvania format. Follow Sargon on his quest to the cursed Mount Qaf to rescue the kidnapped Prince of Persia.
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