Today, Ubisoft announced Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, a remake of 2003’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a PS2, Nintendo GameCube, PC, Xbox, and Nintendo GameBoy game that’s widely considered one of the best games of its generation. And to accompany this announcement — which was made during Ubisoft Forward — the French games maker has revealed our first-ever look at the game, courtesy of a debut trailer, as well as the remake’s release date: January 21, 2021.
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“Embark on a journey as the Prince to prevent the powerful Sands of Time from falling into the hands of the treacherous Vizier,” reads an official pitch of the game. “Master the Sands of Time and use your dagger to control time itself. Fight cursed enemies and solve puzzles along the way.”
For those that don’t know: Prince of Persia, created by Jordan Mechner, began back in 1989 with “Prince of Persia,” a fantasy cinematic platformer published on the Apple II by Broderbund. At the time, the game was critically-acclaimed, and to this day it’s considered one of the greatest games of all time, or at the very least, one of the greatest games of its era.
That said, Prince of Persia as we know it today didn’t begin until 2003 when Ubisoft got it hands on the IP and released Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The third-person action-adventure meets puzzle-platformer released in November 2003 via the PS2, Nintendo GameCube, PC, Xbox, and Nintendo GameBoy, and now it’s being remade for modern consoles.
A reboot of the series, it debuted to great acclaim just like the original 1989 game, though it certainly doesn’t hold as prominent of a place in the history books of video games. It did however put its director Patrice Desilets on the map, who would go on to create the Assassin’s Creed series a few years later. As for Mechner, he was brought on as a designer and consultant.
Despite being a critical hit upon release and one of the highest-rated games of the year, sales were initially slow for the title, however, it did eventually become a commercial success. In fact, as of 2014, it’s sold more than 14 million units, which is a very impressive number. As you would expect, a year later a sequel followed dubbed: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.
The last time we got a new release in the series was in 2010 when The Forgotten Sands released. In other words — bar one remake in 2013 — the series has been dormant for 10 years, which is why so many are excited to see it back.
