What Happened to Prince of Persia?
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00:00 Sit down, and I will tell you a tale like none that you have ever heard.
00:04 At one point, one of the most influential action-adventure franchises around,
00:08 Prince of Persia came back with a vengeance in 2024's The Lost Crown.
00:13 The switch to Metroidvania over a grander 3D title has been praised by many
00:17 while breathing new life into the dormant series.
00:20 However, it's the first mainline entry in 14 years.
00:24 So, what went wrong?
00:25 Why did Ubisoft let one of its most esteemed IPs of the 2000s fall into obscurity?
00:31 Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're taking you through the history of Prince of Persia
00:36 and why it needed to die before it could be reborn.
00:39 Before we continue, we publish new content all week long,
00:49 so be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
00:55 Of course, the series didn't begin with Ubisoft.
00:58 Creator Jordan Mechner first found success with the martial arts fighter 1984's Karateka.
01:03 So my first games were copies of existing arcade games,
01:05 and you always had three lives, and the goal was to get a high score.
01:08 By now I was a freshman in college, and I wanted to do a game that would tell a story.
01:12 So that's when I started programming the game that would become Karateka.
01:16 Which he developed while attending Yale of all places, so major props to him.
01:22 Publisher Broderbund was so pleased, it enlisted Mechner to create a new game.
01:26 And what he came up with during his final year at school was Prince of Persia.
01:30 And I had an idea to do another game.
01:33 He drew from many outside sources as inspiration,
01:35 including the classic Arabian Nights stories and adventure films like Raiders of the Lost Ark.
01:40 It followed the nameless prince attempting to rescue his beloved from an evil wizard,
01:44 who had taken control while Persia's sultan was away fighting a war.
01:47 There were many elements that made it unique in comparison to other platformers at the time.
01:52 Just like in Karateka, Mechner implemented rotoscope animation,
01:56 a process that involves tracing over live-action images to create more fluid movement.
02:01 He rotoscoped images of his younger brother for platforming,
02:04 though the sword combat provided a greater challenge.
02:07 Mechner looked to 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood,
02:10 particularly the final fight between the hero and villain, to get it just right.
02:14 By the time I did the animation for Prince of Persia in '85,
02:17 a new technology had come along, VHS.
02:19 So using one of the early VHS cameras, I videotaped my brother.
02:23 Although not an immediate success,
02:25 Prince of Persia grew in acclaim and sales as it was ported to other platforms.
02:29 Thanks to its cinematic style, it's now considered one of the more unique games of its era.
02:34 After taking some time off, Mechner and Brøderbund returned with 1993's Prince of Persia II,
02:39 The Shadow and the Flame.
02:41 It was as good a sequel as you could get,
02:43 with more focus on combat, grander level design, and even better visuals.
02:48 It seemed the series could do no wrong,
02:49 but like many other video game IPs in the 90s,
02:52 it encountered its biggest hurdle during a time of transition for the industry, 3D.
02:57 Through various legal dealings and rights swapping,
03:05 the Prince of Persia license ended up with publisher Red Orb Entertainment in the late 90s.
03:10 While Mechner was brought in as a creative consultant
03:12 and to help write a new game's scenario,
03:15 he has said he felt disconnected from the development on Prince of Persia 3D.
03:20 The more time passed, the more unhappy he felt,
03:22 considering it a Tomb Raider knockoff which had recently blown up in popularity.
03:27 When it was released in 1999, the public wasn't that impressed either.
03:31 Poor controls and a frustrating camera made it a far cry from what came before it,
03:35 and the series may have ended there, if not for Ubisoft.
03:39 "Time is an ocean in a storm. You may wonder who I am and why I say this."
03:45 The third game had clearly left Mechner feeling disappointed,
03:49 but it isn't every day a publisher of Ubisoft's size comes knocking on your door.
03:54 Ubisoft had purchased the series rights in 2001,
03:57 and sought Mechner out for a possible revival.
04:00 Initially brought in as a consultant,
04:02 things went so well that he ended up signing on as designer and writer.
04:06 Just like the 1989 game, Prince of Persia The Sands of Time had many outside influences.
04:12 Its design was inspired by 2001's Ico,
04:15 while the prince's many acrobatic movements drew inspiration from movies like The Matrix
04:19 and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
04:22 It follows our hero, Nameless once again,
04:24 after being tricked into unleashing the titular sands,
04:27 which turn untold numbers of citizens into monsters before he could fix his mistake.
04:31 In terms of mechanics, the rewind ability was the central star.
04:35 Being able to reverse a careless death or avoid a detrimental attack
04:39 is something players never grew tired of.
04:41 The visuals, the level design, the gameplay,
04:44 even a performance from a young Yuri Lowenthal.
04:47 Everything combined to make an excellent adventure.
04:49 "This is your doing."
04:51 "I saw my father turn to sand."
04:54 The Sands of Time saw the series grow bigger than it ever had before.
04:58 Rave critical reviews, huge sales numbers,
05:00 and a legion of happy fans naturally meant sequels would be on the way.
05:04 With the gaming world growing darker and edgier,
05:06 2004's Warrior Within followed suit.
05:09 It brought the series up to an M rating with an increase in violence and a darker story.
05:14 It concerned the Dehaka, a godlike timeline guardian angry with the prince
05:18 for his various time shenanigans from the first game.
05:21 Although not quite as strongly received as Sands, though nothing in the series would be,
05:26 it was still a solid entry that got players excited for the trilogy's end.
05:30 Mechner actually had no input on this game,
05:32 as he had his hands full working on Disney's future live-action adaptation.
05:37 However, he wasn't a fan of the mature rating.
05:40 Also going as far to say that the story and visual style weren't his taste either.
05:44 Well, can't win 'em all.
05:46 "Then you know I have no choice."
05:48 "There is always a choice, Kylena."
05:50 "Then I choose to live, and for you to die."
05:54 2005 gave players a double dose of The Prince.
05:58 Battles of Prince of Persia was a forgettable tactics spin-off for the DS,
06:02 which filled in some time between Sands and Warrior.
06:04 The Two Thrones, on the other hand, closed out the main trilogy.
06:08 By playing around in time, the finale saw the prince contend with a reborn villain,
06:12 as well as an evil version of himself fighting to control him.
06:15 It expanded on gameplay and level elements from the first two without being too different,
06:19 closing out the trilogy strongly.
06:21 Sadly, it would seem Ubisoft wasn't quite sure what to do with the IP in the coming years.
06:27 [Gunshots]
06:30 Instead of following in its own successful footsteps,
06:33 Ubisoft chose to reboot the series with 2008's self-titled installment.
06:38 The game utilized a cel-shaded art style which, sadly, many players of the time were against.
06:43 It also focused more on puzzles and parkour,
06:45 as well as exploration with its less linear world design.
06:49 Less emphasis was placed on combat,
06:51 with most fights being one-on-one rather than having groups of minor enemies.
06:55 It was markedly easier than the other games, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
06:59 Still, with cinematic action-adventure games quickly becoming the hot trend,
07:03 The Prince didn't grab as much attention this time around, despite some fairly strong sales.
07:08 Also quite unfortunate was the fact that Nintendo fans got the short end of the stick,
07:13 with The Fallen King on the DS,
07:15 a consolation prize released on the same day with cumbersome controls,
07:18 and the only other game to be set in the same continuity.
07:22 "Yeah, and you can run too!"
07:24 2010 saw the series fail to entice modern audiences on two fronts.
07:28 Mechner had been working with Disney to develop the story of a live-action film since 2004,
07:33 which had more than its fair share of obstacles to overcome,
07:36 including a writer's strike from 2007 to 2008.
07:40 When The Sands of Time finally did release in May of 2010,
07:44 there were multiple elements that led to its failure.
07:46 One was that it didn't release during the franchise's peak, in the early Ubisoft years.
07:51 Another was that it was very clearly Disney's attempt at a second Pirates of the Caribbean,
07:56 with much of the swashbuckling, but not nearly the same level of charm.
08:00 Oh, and lead actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton are clearly not Persian,
08:05 only given a tan and some eyeliner to pass them off as such.
08:08 "You know this? He said as much, didn't he?"
08:10 On the gaming side, Ubisoft had been working on a tie-in game for the movie
08:14 at the same time as their reboot.
08:16 When the movie suffered delays, the studio instead chose to revisit The Sands continuity
08:21 with The Forgotten Sands, set between the first and second entries.
08:24 How good the game was depended entirely on where you played it,
08:28 what you'd call the "main game" launched on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.
08:33 But the DS, PSP, Wii, and even mobile devices got vastly different experiences,
08:38 and naturally ones that weren't nearly as good.
08:40 Even still, the best version of The Forgotten Sands
08:43 failed to stand out in an increasingly crowded market.
08:46 With reviews and sales a bit too weak,
08:48 it would seem a disappointing end to the series for quite some time.
08:51 The 2010s were a dark time for Prince of Persia fans.
08:59 When it comes to huge action-adventure franchises,
09:02 Ubisoft found itself more than covered with the advent of Assassin's Creed.
09:05 With similar gameplay and the diminishing sales and popularity of Prince of Persia,
09:10 it's completely understandable what a business would choose to focus on.
09:14 We got two Endless Runner spin-offs for mobile,
09:16 which were fine, but not what any player truly wanted.
09:19 In 2020, a trailer resurfaced of a cancelled Prince of Persia Redemption,
09:24 which was in development for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.
09:28 It looked surprisingly great and got a lot of people wishing this series would return.
09:32 But that very same year, Ubisoft unveiled a trailer for a Sands of Time remake,
09:37 which received immediate backlash for its questionable visuals.
09:41 This caused the studio to eventually delay it from its January 2021 release date,
09:46 and change development teams.
09:47 As of writing, we haven't seen any additional footage since,
09:51 though Ubisoft issued a small update in November of 2023,
09:54 saying that development was progressing well.
09:56 So, a couple of uninspired mobile releases, a cancelled mainline game,
10:07 and a botched announcement for a remake of a beloved classic.
10:10 All of this after the series had already begun to decline in popularity.
10:14 What happened to Prince of Persia is that it failed to innovate and got outshone by others in its genre,
10:19 followed by a period where Ubisoft seemingly didn't know what to do with it.
10:23 But while we were all complaining about what we could only see on the surface,
10:26 the studio began work in 2019 on something that would earn back much of its hard-earned respect.
10:31 With 2024's The Lost Crown, the series switched to the Metroidvania genre,
10:35 which is only one of many excellent decisions made in the franchise's revitalization.
10:40 This allowed Ubisoft to blend the time-bending action elements of its games
10:45 with the clever trap and level structure of Mechner's originals.
10:48 Just like its world design, the layers of narrative and Persian mythos are unraveled as you play,
10:53 giving gamers more than one reason to want to keep going.
10:56 New Hero Sargon feels ridiculously good to control,
10:59 whether in combat or while navigating its many deadly environments.
11:03 The game has received incredibly strong reviews from most corners,
11:07 including Mechner himself, who stated it's the Prince of Persia he's been wishing for.
11:12 And who are any of us to argue with him?
11:14 Who knows what the future holds for Prince of Persia?
11:21 Perhaps The Lost Crown will kick off a new series of Metroidvanias,
11:25 or maybe the Sands of Time remake will come back stronger than ever
11:28 and lead to a new full 3D installment.
11:30 Regardless, there are too many graveyards filled with too many dead franchises.
11:35 It isn't often one comes back to life, but when one does, and turns out this well,
11:40 it's something that should be celebrated.
11:42 Welcome back, Prince. You've been missed.
11:45 None of you will leave here alive.
11:47 None of you will leave here alive.
11:49 Check out these other great clips from Mojo Plays,
11:53 and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
11:58 [Music]