Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, interview with the developers

More than 10 years after the original chapter, the Prince of Persia is about to return to the console in a new, polished look. After the insistent requests of the fans, in fact, Ubisoft decided to give the players of PlayStation 4, Xbox One e PC Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake. Despite the work of Ubisoft Mumbai, the Indian division of the French software house, has not at the moment convinced the fans, in a recent interview the creative team, in particular the CEO Syed Abbas, the production manager Sashi Menon, the director of the game Pierre-Sylvain Gires and the senior producer Annu Koul, tried to explain to us how he will work on the title to lead it to its official release to the best of its potential.

The developers have confirmed that they want to bring back all the elements that made its predecessor great in this new remake: storytelling, plot, puzzles and the prince's iconic time powers will return almost unchanged. However, the team wanted to point out that gods will be made changes to the game cutscenes and gameplay, in particular to the camera, controls and combat system, not only with a new targeting system, but also through improved enemy responsiveness.

We have revisited and improved the combat not only with the multi-targeting system but also by improving the reactivity of the combat, the adjustment of the UI and with some additional moves.

As for the technical side, Ubisoft Mumbai will use theAnvil Engine, the engine used already in Assassin's Creed Origins, so as to give a touch of modernity to the title, and find the right balance that can entertain both the historical fans of the saga and the players who will approach it for the first time.

Before starting to work on this project, we thoroughly evaluated all the different engines that Ubisoft has. We realized that, for the game we wanted to make, the Anvil engine was more suited to our needs. While it wasn't a bespoke option, it was the best option for getting parkour, character movement, and combat.

Finally, the development team confirmed that the title it will not have a microtransaction system, and also expressed himself on the recent criticisms received from the players:

Sands of Time is a fantasy adventure, the plot and the environment are based on the tale of the thousand and one nights. We wanted the players to be immersed in this beautiful narrative and so we adopted a handwriting that reflected this fantasy. We also wanted to be different from other games and provide a unique visual identity. We have chosen this direction to enhance the fantasy and magical feeling, as expected in the original game! The trailer was made from WIP footage and not from the final depiction of the game.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake will be released on January 21, 2021 and, since next-generation consoles will be backwards compatible, the developers have confirmed that there will be no version for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S.