A new rumor alleges that Ubisoft disbanded the Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown development team.
A screenshot from Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (2024), Ubisoft
This rumor comes from French YouTube channel ORIGAMI whose host detailed that at the Ubisoft Montpellier office employees were seen transporting boxes of supplies from one floor to another. He notes the reason this was being done is because Ubisoft disbanded the Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown development team.
Using YouTube’s translate function, the ORIGAMI host states, “In recent days at Ubisoft Montpellier, we are transporting boxes from one floor to another and it is quite a symbol because it is that of dissolution, not announced to the public, but completed of the team Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.”
READ: Ubisoft’s ‘Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown’ Looks Like Another Sales Loser
The host went on to share that the decision to disband the team was made shortly after the game released at the beginning of the year. It released on January 18, 2024 to Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation.
He said, “It was clear in the spring, in fact. A few patches, a DLC, and we are packing up.”
A screenshot from Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (2024), Ubisoft
While Ubisoft management had made the decision to move on from the game shortly after it was released, the host claimed that some members of the core development team fought for two DLCs in an attempt to change the minds of management.
However, Ubisoft management were unconvinced especially given the game’s sales were below expectations. Instead, they wanted to reallocate the team to more potentially lucrative projects. Furthermore, the team was told that if they were to release a sequel it could cannibalize long term sales of the first game.
A screenshot from Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (2024), Ubisoft
Ubisoft did publicly announce reallocation of resources within its company back in May where it revealed it was scrapping development of The Division Heartland at Red Storm Entertainment and reallocating “resources to bigger opportunities such as XDefiant and Rainbow Six.”
Furthermore, the company announced that its strategic focus was to “regain leadership in Open World Adventures and Expand footprint as Games-as-a-Service (GaaS)-native experiences, by leveraging ongoing efforts on proprietary cutting-edge technologies as a differentiating factor.”
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown clearly does not fit in any of those categories as it is a 2D Metroidvania platformer.
A screenshot from Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (2024), Ubisoft
Regarding the game’s sales, the idea that they were soft is not surprising. The game recently released on Steam at the beginning of August and only hit a peak concurrent player count of 1,446. In the past 24-hours the game only hit a peak concurrent player count of just 123.
Sales estimates also indicate that the game sold at most 54,000 units and at minimum just 40,600 units.
To put that in perspective PlayTracker estimated that Concord sold 20,800 units while VG Insights estimated it sold 25,700.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown peak concurrent player charts
Furthermore, given the game released to Steam in August, it’s likely Ubisoft was factoring in at least a decent bump in sales for its second quarter alongside its Star Wars Outlaws release.
However, in a press release at the end of September, Ubisoft announced that is was significantly cutting back its expectations for the second quarter from €500 million to between €350-370 million. That’s a decrease of 30%. It also noted that it was lowering its yearly expectation to “around €1.95bn, and around break-even non-IFRS operating income and free cash flow.”
The company explained, “The revised targets are mainly a reflection of decisions taken for Assassin’s Creed Shadows and the softer than expected launch for Star Wars Outlaws.
A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft
In the accompanying Trading Update call, CEO Yves Guillemot was asked by Nicholas Langlent of BNP Paribas, “So the Q2 guidance … is it only Star Wars Outlaws or is there something else underperforming in the portfolio?”
Guillemot responded, “It mostly reflects the softer than expected sales for Star Wars Outlaws. We also had behind expectations for XDefiant, which we will give you a bit more detail at the end of October.”
While he did not mention Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, it is quite possible based on the player counts we are seeing that this game did not meet sales expectations as well.
Yves Guillemot via Ubisoft North America YouTube
What do you make of this rumor that the team behind Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was disbanded?
NEXT: Rumor: Ubisoft To End Support Of ‘XDefiant’ After Season 4 If It Does Not Increase Its Player Base
