While Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was released earlier this year, its overall quality quickly made it a top contender for Game of the Year. However, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown‘s critical reception did not equal sales, as Ubisoft has reportedly disbanded Ubisoft Montpellier, the developer behind the 2024 Prince of Persia entry, due to the game not meeting the company’s sales expectations.
The report comes from French journalist Gautoz, who revealed the current status of the developer in a 30-minute video on their Origami YouTube channel, in which the reported findings were thankfully translated into a Reset Era post. Gautoz says the game’s fate was determined in the first few weeks after Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown‘s initial January launch. He adds that DLC and cosmetic items would end the game’s post-release support by spring.
Select members of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown‘s core dev team fought to get a sequel greenlit, but Ubisoft higherups said no due to a sequel possibly cannibalizing the long-term sales of the first game. When that didn’t work, developers instead pitched more expansions, but that didn’t work either as the publisher needed more hands on deck with other upcoming projects that would make better sales than what Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown would end up selling, which initially sold 300,000 copies in its launch month.
“The production of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown wasn’t exactly an issue—far from it, actually. For instance, there was crunch, but we’re talking about a production with a really strong collective spirit, which is pretty different from how Ubisoft usually makes games with 80 to 100 people fully loaded on development, which is pretty small in comparison. Some teams, like the gameplay team, for example, were set up almost horizontally with a lot of listening and consultation,” Gautoz said in a video via English translation.
“People felt like they had a say in the project’s direction. Plus, it’s worth mentioning that the Prince of Persia team had often allowed people who were totally burned out due to too much time spent on Beyond Good and Evil 2. Somewhere along the way, it also helped some people get back on their feet after tough times in their careers. So these days, the big office reorganization at Ubisoft Montpellier is kind of wiping away the last traces of that team.”
The last content released for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was the paid expansion, the Mask of Darkness, launched on September 17th. That wasn’t that long ago, as the team that launched that expansion a month later is now apparently no more. Ubisoft Montpellier was known more infamously as the lead developer of Beyond Good and Evil 2, but the game has been in development for over a decade. As part of the release of the 20th anniversary remaster of the original Beyond Good and Evil, Ubisoft added a small side quest that tied into the sequel. As part of the announcement, Ubisoft stated that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still in development.