Ubisoft says Prince of Persia franchise is 'on pause'

Prince of Persia hasn't seen a new game since 2010's The Forgotten Sands, and Ubisoft said that's intentional. The series is taking a break after a very busy couple years over the last decade, Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat told IGN.

“Brand management is a tricky thing,” Mallat said. “It needs people's attention a lot. I think it is fair to say that, right now, Prince of Persia is being paused. But we said the same thing for some other brands that suddenly popped up because a team is willing to do it.”

Ubisoft Montreal jump-started the franchise with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time in 2003. Since then the massive studio has filled its plate with other intellectual properties including Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Watch Dogs.

Still, Mallat said, the Prince will return when the time is right.

“I'm not scared at all for Prince of Persia fans,” he said. “We'll find something to entertain them with in the future. Prince of Persia is part of Ubisoft's portfolio. As a matter of fact, we sometimes iterate on franchises and sometimes we give them time to breathe and time to grow, or time to rest. Prince of Persia is as important as any other franchise for Ubisoft. As soon as we have something to show, we will.”

Until then we can wonder about this motion capture demo reel for a project codenamed Osiris, dug up by a NeoGAF user and supposedly commissioned by Ubisoft Montreal. It's likely the same game which showed up in leaked screenshots tied to Prince of Persia back in August.

UPDATE: Ubisoft tells Polygon that the Osiris content "was from a Ubisoft project that is no longer moving forward," so no wondering necessary.