The short version
- Jordan Mechner made the first Prince of Persia in 1989. Ubisoft rebooted it with The Sands of Time in 2003, one of the best-reviewed games of its era.
- Sales were good, never huge. Meanwhile, a planned Prince of Persia successor turned into Assassin's Creed, which has now sold over 250 million copies.
- The well-reviewed Lost Crown (2024) sold about 1.3 million in its first year. Ubisoft broke up its team and dropped the sequel.
- The Sands of Time remake was cancelled on January 21, 2026, after six years, two studios and a full restart. No new Prince of Persia game has been announced.
How it started
Jordan Mechner started work on Prince of Persia in 1985, after his hit Karateka. It came out on the Apple II on October 3, 1989, published by Broderbund. To get lifelike movement, he filmed his brother David running and jumping, then traced the footage frame by frame, a technique called rotoscoping. The sword fights were traced from the final duel in the 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood.
The setup was simple. The evil vizier Jaffar has seized the throne and locked up the Sultan's daughter. You have 60 minutes to escape the dungeon, get past spikes, pits and guillotines, and stop him.
It started slowly. By July 1990, it had sold only about 7,000 copies each on the Apple II and PC in North America. Ports to more machines turned it into a hit, and sales reached about 2 million by 1993. It has now been ported to more than 20 platforms and is often called the first cinematic platformer.
Image: Jordan Mechner
The games, and how they did
Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame (1993)
Set 11 days after the first game, Jaffar returns disguised as the Prince and curses the Princess. The sequel added bigger levels, more varied locations and fights against up to four enemies at once, with a 75-minute time limit. Computer Gaming World named it Action Game of the Year, and Mechner says it sold 750,000 copies by 2000. It ended on a cliffhanger that was never resolved.
Image: Prince of Persia Wiki (Fandom)
Prince of Persia 3D (1999)
The first 3D game came out on PC, with a Dreamcast port in 2000. Broderbund had been bought by The Learning Company, then Mattel, during development. The result was buggy, with poor controls and a clumsy camera, and it scored in the low 60s. Mechner saw it as a Tomb Raider clone. It flopped, and he stepped away from games for a while.
Image: Prince of Persia Wiki (Fandom)
The Sands of Time (2003)
This is the game most fans remember. Ubisoft picked up the series and brought Mechner back as designer and writer, with Ubisoft Montreal developing. The Prince is tricked into unleashing the Sands of Time, which turn a palace full of people into monsters. He teams up with Farah to undo it, using the Dagger of Time to rewind his mistakes.
That rewind, plus wall-running and fluid acrobatics, won Game of the Year at E3 2003. It scored 92 on Metacritic on consoles. Launch sales were slow, though: the PS2 version had sold just 218,000 copies in North America by December 2003. It recovered to 2.4 million worldwide by March 2004.
Image: Ubisoft
Warrior Within (2004)
The sequel went dark. Hunted by the Dahaka, a guardian of the timeline, the Prince sails to the Island of Time to stop the Sands from ever being created. Combat got deeper, with more combos and the ability to grab and throw enemies. But the heavy metal soundtrack, gore and brooding Prince split fans.
It scored 83 on Metacritic and sold 1.9 million in its first month. Mechner, who wasn't involved, said he didn't like it, and its director later admitted the team "overdid" it.
Image: Ubisoft
The Two Thrones (2005)
The trilogy's finale brings the Prince home to Babylon, now burning under the Vizier. Infected by the Sands, the Prince gains a dark alter ego, the Dark Prince, who fights with a chain whip. New Speed Kills allowed stealthy one-hit takedowns, and chariot chases mixed up the pace. It scored 85 on Metacritic and sold more than 1.5 million copies in its first month.
Image: Ubisoft
Prince of Persia (2008)
Ubisoft rebooted the series with a cel-shaded look, a new Prince and his companion Elika. Together they fight to heal a land corrupted by the dark god Ahriman. Elika saves you every time you fall, so there's no traditional death. Some critics called it too easy, but it scored 85 on PS3. It passed 2.2 million copies by January 2009 and 2.5 million by November 2009. The story ended on a cliffhanger, and the planned sequel never came.
Image: Ubisoft
The Forgotten Sands (2010)
This one returned to the Sands of Time Prince, set between the first two games. He helps his brother Malik defend a kingdom from a cursed army and uses elemental powers, such as freezing water into poles and walls to climb. It launched alongside Disney's Jake Gyllenhaal film, which grossed $336 million.
The game scored around 75 and was widely seen as weaker than earlier entries. Separate versions with different stories came out on Wii, PSP and DS. After this, the series had no major new game for 14 years.
Image: Ubisoft
The Lost Crown (2024)
Ubisoft Montpellier went back to 2D with a side-scrolling action game in the Metroidvania style, released on January 18, 2024. You play Sargon, a young warrior of the Immortals, who searches a cursed Mount Qaf for a kidnapped prince. Time powers return in new forms, along with fast, combo-heavy combat.
Critics loved it, with Metacritic scores of 86 to 88 and an accessibility award at The Game Awards 2024. But Ubisoft said it sold about 1.3 million copies in its first year, below its targets. It later passed 3 million players and came to Mac and mobile.
Image: Ubisoft
The Rogue Prince of Persia (2025)
Evil Empire, the studio known for its work on Dead Cells, made this roguelike. The Prince must stop a Hun army attacking the city of Ctesiphon, and each time he dies, he returns to camp to try again. It entered early access on Steam in May 2024 and fully launched on August 20, 2025. It scored around 80 on Metacritic and reached Switch and Switch 2 in December 2025.
Image: Ubisoft
Trouble behind the scenes
The series has had more than its share of turmoil:
- Ownership changes. Broderbund was bought by The Learning Company, which Mattel later bought. The 3D game came out in that mess.
- Creative clashes. Mechner openly disliked Warrior Within's direction.
- Teams broken up. In October 2024, Ubisoft confirmed the Lost Crown team had been disbanded and moved to other projects. The planned sequel was rejected.
- The remake. It went through two studios and a full restart. More on that below.
The Sands of Time remake
Ubisoft revealed the remake in September 2020 with a January 2021 release date. Ubisoft's Indian studios in Pune and Mumbai led development. The first trailer drew complaints about its dated-looking visuals. The game slipped to March 2021, then was delayed indefinitely.
In 2022, Ubisoft Montreal, the studio behind the original, took over. A year later, Ubisoft said the project was back at the concept and prototype stage. In 2024 it set a 2026 release window.
Image: Ubisoft
Why it was cancelled
On January 21, 2026, Ubisoft announced a "major organisational, operational and portfolio reset". It cancelled six games, including the remake, and delayed seven more. Ubisoft blamed a more selective AAA market and rising development costs, and said the cancelled games didn't meet its new quality and "portfolio prioritization" bar.
The remake team put it more plainly. They said the game couldn't reach "the level of quality you deserve" without more time and money than Ubisoft could responsibly commit.
Why Ubisoft chose Assassin's Creed
This part is almost poetic. After The Sands of Time, Ubisoft asked designer Patrice Désilets to make a next-gen Prince of Persia. His research led him to the Hashshashin, a medieval order of assassins. The project grew into an open-world stealth game, and Ubisoft decided to make it a new series.
Image: Ubisoft
Assassin's Creed (2007) sold more than 9 million copies, several times what any Prince of Persia game sold at launch. The franchise has passed 250 million copies since. It also fit what Ubisoft wanted to make: big open worlds with yearly releases. Ubisoft has never spelled out its reasons, but the numbers explain a lot. Prince of Persia's tight, linear platforming didn't fit the open-world model, and none of its games came close to Assassin's Creed sales.
What's next for the Prince
Nothing has been announced. Under Ubisoft's new structure, Prince of Persia sits in "Creative House 4" with Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil, while Assassin's Creed gets its own studio, Vantage Studios. The remake team said the cancellation doesn't mean it is leaving the franchise. Ubisoft also promised "more Prince of Persia experiences" when it disbanded the Lost Crown team.
Fans aren't waiting. In April 2026, a fan group called Prince of Persia Universe started an RTX Remix mod to give the original Sands of Time PC game modern lighting and new models.
For now, The Lost Crown and The Rogue Prince of Persia are the series' latest games.
Our take
I love this series. I never played the first three games, from the 1989 original to Prince of Persia 3D, but everything after them was amazing to me, except Prince of Persia (2008).
Warrior Within was my first Prince of Persia, and I fell for it instantly. Running along walls and turning back time blew my mind. I loved the story too. I ended up seeing both endings, the first by accident and the second on purpose, after finding out there was a true ending where you take on the Dahaka with the Water Sword 😂. So it was a real shock to see Kaileena again in The Two Thrones.
After Warrior Within, my favourite is The Forgotten Sands. The critics weren't kind to it, but I loved the elemental powers and the puzzles built around them. Freezing a waterfall into a wall and running across it still feels like peak Prince of Persia to me.
As for Assassin's Creed, I really liked a few of the games. Over time, though, the gameplay became repetitive for me. And I do partly blame it for Prince of Persia's downfall. It grew out of a Prince of Persia project, took the parkour, and then took Ubisoft's attention and budget with it.
The Lost Crown proved there's still life in this series, even if sales didn't match the reviews. I really hope Ubisoft revives it properly, whether that's a Sands of Time remake done right or a brand-new adventure. The Prince deserves another chance.
