Behind Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake Misadventure

[Roarschach]

According to multiple sources at Ubisoft India (both Pune and Mumbai studios), there was not much in way of support from Ubisoft itself. All of them requested anonymity for fear of retribution. These include:

1. Little to no documentation: was given to the team in India. Granted the original game design document for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time wasn't more than 10 pages, you'd think any material regarding the original release or its sequels would be shared. But this was not the case. This led to designers having to figure out how to make the game and its levels from scratch with little guidance.
2. Anvil Engine: furthermore, the team was forced to use Ubisoft's Anvil Engine, that too a version based on Assassin's Creed Origins, with management forcing them to retrofit the animations of the Prince — a lean, lanky character — on an animation rig meant for Assassin's Creed Origins protagonist Bayek who has a stockier, heavyset frame. This is why the initial reveal had janky, odd animations those familiar with the project tell me.
3. Inexperienced leadership: prior to helming Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, its game director had no game development experience. He moved to the team working on Riders Republic shortly after the game was handed over to outsourcing specialist Electric Square last year. Speaking of which…
4. Getting it outsourced: following the poor reception to the game's initial reveal, the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake was handed over to Electric Square to take it over the finish line. However it wasn't able to do much with what it had in the time Ubisoft wanted it so Ubisoft handed it back to Ubisoft Montreal.

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More at link

 

[Ridley327]

Sounds like I've been entirely too generous in previous threads about the game when I called it a B-project for Ubisoft, as there's licensed games of deeply mediocre quality there that have gotten more support than what it sounds like both India teams got here. Ubi really thought folks would be overjoyed about there being a new game at all to ignore the obvious lack of care and oversight for everyone to see.

 

[dex3108]

So Ubisoft India studios are basically dead development wise

Following the avoidable debacle that was the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake reveal, it seems that Ubisoft's India studios — Mumbai and Pune have been relegated back to quality assurance and live operations rather than full scale development.

The Mumbai studio had a hand in a few VR projects like Assassin's Creed but those have now trickled to a halt. So much so that it's unlikely that it would renew the lease on its Mumbai studio, based in Powai when it expires.

In addition to this, the rampant mismanagement has resulted in a mass exodus of senior talent, either to other studios or to simply strike it out as indies. What should have been the game that solidifies India's development prowess at a global level ended up being a mess of colossal proportions with poor decision making and lack of actual leadership to blame.

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[Gol]

So Ubi threw it out there with no care whatsoever. Shocker.

 

[Faenix1]

I had a feeling from reveal that there was little to no actual support thrown into it. Prince of Persia deserves Assassins Creed attention.. keeps getting these half-assed attempts.

 

[Loxley]

It just baffles me that Ubi was apparently completely oblivious to the fact that Sands of Time is one of their most beloved games, and as such any remake would be scrutinized to hell and back.

Why they ever thought half-assing this project would work out is beyond me.

 

[Uzupedro]

This really sucks to read, these studios got all the heat for something it was virtually doomed to fail.

 

[Faenix1]

It just baffles me that Ubi was apparently completely oblivious to the fact that Sands of Time is one of their most beloved games, and as such any remake would be scrutinized to hell and back.

Why they ever thought half-assing this project would work out is beyond me.

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It's not even the first time they half-assed it either. They released that poor POP HD trilogy remaster on PS3.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

So Ubi just completely threw them under the bus then, can't say I'm surprised sadly

 

[dex3108]

It just baffles me that Ubi was apparently completely oblivious to the fact that Sands of Time is one of their most beloved games, and as such any remake would be scrutinized to hell and back.

Why they ever thought half-assing this project would work out is beyond me.

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They needed games to fill their schedule so they tried bellowed game low effort remaster/remake. They thought that people will buy is just based on nostalgia.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

It just baffles me that Ubi was apparently completely oblivious to the fact that Sands of Time is one of their most beloved games, and as such any remake would be scrutinized to hell and back.

Why they ever thought half-assing this project would work out is beyond me.

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I don't think Ubi is that self aware quite frankly

 

[DiipuSurotu]

It just baffles me that Ubi was apparently completely oblivious to the fact that Sands of Time is one of their most beloved games, and as such any remake would be scrutinized to hell and back.

Why they ever thought half-assing this project would work out is beyond me.

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I mean even Square Enix tried to outsource FFVII Remake at first

 

[Randdalf]

I had no idea that Electric Square had branched out beyond racing games. I guess that's what their new studios do?

 

[garion333]

They didn't need to reveal it when they did, clearly, but paras like this:

All of this should have meant shared knowledge within the studio all while giving its developers a wide enough canvas to hone their skills. Instead it was brought down by incompetent, overambitious management.

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Much as I enjoy Jason Schreier's reporting on the industry, as there's little else like him, it seems that the angle of "bad publisher, good devs" has filtered through to this reporting also. You can hear it in the way this article is written.

 

[NESpowerhouse]

I feel bad for one of my classmates in college and former coworker who was really excited to finally getting to work in the industry on a game he loved after busting his ass in school. It seems like much of his team is now working on Assassins Creed VR instead.

 

[Deleted member 3208]

Those people didn't deserve this crap. Ubisoft management is awful.

 

[Ridley327]

I mean even Square Enix tried to outsource FFVII Remake at first

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There's a big difference in leaning on a well-established studio like CC2 that already had tons of experience versus sending two smaller support studios to figure out on their own how to rebuild from the ground up one of the most beloved games out there with close to zero support.

 

[Messofanego]

Ubisoft really set up Indian studios up to fail. Thanks for sharing this.

 

[Grips]

Why wasnt this project first given to Ubi MTL, its birthplace, is beyond me.

 

[AshenOne]

Mismanaged project at its finest from the ubisoft management.

 

[Ridley327]

Why wasnt this project first given to Ubi MTL, its birthplace, is beyond me.

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It's pretty clearly implied that Ubi didn't see this as more than a cheap stopgap game while their bigger studios worked on the larger projects, so there's little doubt that a remake of a 2003 game with no real monetization options was deemed beneath what they wanted Montreal to focus on.

 

[Huey]

Yet another important lesson in "No one sets out to make a bad game" and that they are a consequence of many interacting factors. Good on this site for covering it - hopefully one day the "lazy/bad developers" narrative will stop.

 

[Helix]

further proof that literal bozos run Ubisoft

 

[EntelechyFuff]

They didn't need to reveal it when they did, clearly, but paras like this:



Much as I enjoy Jason Schreier's reporting on the industry, as there's little else like him, it seems that the angle of "bad publisher, good devs" has filtered through to this reporting also. You can hear it in the way this article is written.

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Someone affiliated with the perspectives of the publisher are generally not gonna dish dirt about beleaguered projects. Devs are more likely to do so.

The reporting reflects the people that were spoken to.

Like, I don't think I can think of any news stories examples offhand where the narrative favored the publisher, or were content to live with "it's complicated".

 

[LossAversion]

One of the greatest games ever made. It deserves to be treated with a lot more care.

 

[Lord Fanny]

They didn't need to reveal it when they did, clearly, but paras like this:



Much as I enjoy Jason Schreier's reporting on the industry, as there's little else like him, it seems that the angle of "bad publisher, good devs" has filtered through to this reporting also. You can hear it in the way this article is written.

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Schreier didn't write this article

 

[Lord Fanny]

Someone affiliated with the perspectives of the publisher are generally not gonna dish dirt about beleaguered projects. Devs are more likely to do so.

The reporting reflects the people that were spoken to.

Like, I don't think I can think of any news stories examples offhand where the narrative favored the publisher, or were content to live with "it's complicated".

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Titanfall 2 releasing close to COD was reportedly an idea directly from Respawn, so that is one. I'm sure there's more if you dig.

But I don't really get what the complaint is supposed to be. More often than not the publisher is the one footing the fill and the direction of a games development is always going to be impacted by that in some way, for good or bad. People should be aware of this dynamic by now.

 

[ShinobiBk]

The reveal was one of the worst reveals we've seen last gen, with models that looked ripped straight from an early PS3 game and a bizarre lack of shadows in the trailer
I said right then and there the team that was tasked with the project was in over their head and wasn't really equipped to deliver what fans wanted, similar to Grove Street Games and the GTA Trilogy remasters.

It's funny cause all Ubi did was waste time and money by not providing the proper budget in the first place

I feel bad for the team but that project was way too much for them to handle, they never should've been put in charge of it

 

[Bedlam]

Ubisoft has literally fucked up everything there is to fuck up management-wise for the last ten years or so at least. What a clownshow that company has become.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Schreier didn't write this article

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They didn't say he did, they're saying his style has influenced the writing here.

 

[Lord Fanny]

They didn't say he did, they're saying his style has influenced the writing here.

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Well, that makes even less sense then

 

[GamerJM]

Ubisoft opening an India studio and then not giving them support is depressing.

 

[dsosarod]

Such a shame ): especially not that it may end killing at least of those studios :/

 

[ashtaar]

Really unfortunate, especially if the Indian devs are now relegated to QA after not being given what they needed to make the game properly

 

[Billfisto]

Why on earth did they "need to figure out how to make the game and it's levels from scratch with little guidance"? There's a complete existing work (including a PC version). There are copies of the strategy guide (complete with maps) floating around for like thirty bucks. Youtube and numerous Lets Plays exist. Heck, googling "sands of time maps" literally brings up a video about exporting the levels into Blender. It sounds like they were just building it off Asscreed so they already had a base.

The bit about the rigging seems completely bizarre, too. I don't understand why they'd use lean, lanky animations with a lean, lanky model, but refuse to modify or re-do the rigging. Rigging doesn't take that long in the grand scheme of things, and it's your main character.

It's regrettable that this was their chance and Ubisoft's bungling ruined it for them, but it doesn't really seem like they were ready for the chance. They definitely should have been given a much smaller project to start with instead of being thrown in the deep end.

 

[headspawn]

"game director had no game development experience"

bruh

Just setting them up for failure.

 

[Kholdy]

That's just sad, no team deserves that =(
I'm also impressed that bad reception still means something, if it was SQEX, they'd release it anyway...

 

[Deleted member 4494]

Goddamn. I know it's Ubi but you know what? Fuck Bloober Team for this.

 

[THE RABID MOOSE]

Ubi is not gonna shell out full funds for an IP they don't completely own. They will continue to only ever give modest budgets to it as long as you have things like AC and Just Dance that generate large amounts of profit.

 

[Ridley327]

Ubi is not gonna shell out full funds for an IP they don't completely own. They will continue to only ever give modest budgets to it as long as you have things like AC and Just Dance that generate large amounts of profit.

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I mean, they've got a game based on Avatar coming out this year that looks to be about one of the biggest things they've ever put out.

 

[OozeMan]

I think it's sometimes ok to admit that one just isn't competent enough, especially when things go south. Passing the buck by offloading your problems onto higher management has always been the easy way out.

Inexperience can do this. Local management definitely must share a bigger part of the blame for their handling of development teams and project planning.

 

[Zedelima]

I mean…game looked fine honestly. Good artstyle and all, the only thing i found sub par was the animations

 

[ragolliangatan]

retrofit the animations of the Prince — a lean, lanky character — on an animation rig meant for Assassin's Creed Origins protagonist Bayek who has a stockier, heavyset frame. This is why the initial reveal had janky, odd animations those familiar with the project tell me.

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This is something the animation team could've altered- the rig is different for each AC game for the main character to fit the main characters needs- it just sounds like inexperience within the studio/or a management issue.

 

[Cantaim]

"game director had no game development experience"

bruh

Just setting them up for failure.

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I mean in the person's defense. New people have to direct something.

 

[headspawn]

I mean in the person's defense. New people have to direct something.

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Yeah but it doesn't say 'no directing experience', just flatout, no 'game development experience'. I dunno if they meant the former or not, seems possible.

 

[kurahador]

Wow...that part with the white guy they had as the game director doesn't even have experience in game development.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

Ubisoft literally has no redeeming qualities at this point. This is literally the only project in the last decade from them that I care about, and of course they're fucking it up royally.

 

[dex3108]

I mean…game looked fine honestly. Good artstyle and all, the only thing i found sub par was the animations

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Nah artstyle was bad, character models were bad, visuals on technical level were also bad...

 

[elenarie]

Not sure I understand point 2.