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The Prince of Persia series is known to many from the PS2-era hit Sands of Time and its follow-ups, but it began with developer Broderbund's original Prince of Persia in 1989, designed and helmed by Jordan Mechner. Following the cancellation of the Sands of Time remake that had been in the works, and indeed in the trenches, at Ubisoft for years – just one casualty of a massive overhaul at the long-declining company – Mechner took to his blog to commiserate with fans and developers hurt by the news.
"I'd hoped my first post of the new year would celebrate The Sands of Time's release, but alas, that's not in the cards," Mechner begins in a February 4 post. "The remake's cancellation as part of Ubisoft's restructuring was disappointing news to all fans who'd been eagerly awaiting it, myself included."
Mechner extends his sympathies to the Sands of Time remake team at Ubisoft Montreal, who'd endured internal reboots during production. "Having a project killed is a brutal experience," he says. "It's an aspect of the game industry that the public doesn't often see, but developers are all too familiar with."
Loads of games are cancelled without a single public word, often over funding or creative issues, or in the name of other business priorities. World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2 maker Blizzard has an especially, but not uniquely industrious project graveyard. Mechner later adds that he feels "grateful" to now be working with books and other art like graphic novels, where production budgets are smaller and creative freedom is "priceless."
"A cancellation so close to release can be particularly devastating for younger team members who don't have decades of past shipped titles on their resumé," Mechner continues, and that's especially true given the state of the games industry after tens of thousands of layoffs in the past few years. "It's tough to suddenly absorb that the past four years of hard work you were proud of, and looking forward to seeing out in the world as your new calling card, will now never see daylight."
"Words like loss and grieving might seem exaggerated, but artists put their hearts into their work," he adds, and losing that hard work outright, especially to business decisions above your head, is a real blow.
"Memories of nights and weekends spent in studio crunch instead of at home with loved ones, sacrifices that felt worth it at the time, only add to the pain retrospectively once their object ceases to exist," he concludes.
Eman Ayaz, one of the actors on the Sands of Time remake, called the cancellation, which she only learned of online, "the most devastating moment" of her career. She said she broke her foot during the project but "continued to work," and found that she'd dug up some of her best performances during recording.
