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[corgiix3]

2003- Prince of Persia sands of time remake is out. (banger)
2004- Prince of Persia warrior within is out (BANGER)
2005- Prince of Persia two thrones is out (banger)

Now ubisoft in over 5+ years cant make a remake of a game THEY THEMSELVES CREATED.

I know modern gaming is more expensive and takes longer but bro there is NO WAY they are this bad dude

 

[xanaum]

The obsession with chasing a "modern audience" that isn't even looking for what they're offering is ruining them.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

2003- Prince of Persia sands of time remake is out. (banger)
2004- Prince of Persia warrior within is out (BANGER)
2005- Prince of Persia two thrones is out (banger)

Now ubisoft in over 5+ years cant make a remake of a game THEY THEMSELVES CREATED.

I know modern gaming is more expensive and takes longer but bro there is NO WAY they are this bad dude

Real talk: because from corporate point of view this will mostly appeal to a subset of the fans of the original i.e. you are not expanding the market with it. Remeber that Ubislop is in super GAAS mode, it's either super good niche games like the PoP or Valiant Hearts or mega GAAS, nothing in between. My guess is PoP remake was too costly for them.

 

[PauloRoberto]

Lack of organizaiton and hubris, pure and simple.

Those AC remasters Ubisoft releases some years ago... whoever worked on those should feel ashamed!

 

[Punished Miku]

Real talk: because from corporate point of view this will mostly appeal to a subset of the fans of the original i.e. you are not expanding the market with it. Remeber that Ubislop is in super GAAS mode, it's either super good niche games like the PoP or Valiant Hearts or mega GAAS, nothing in between. My guess is PoP remake was too costly for them.

That was my take as well. They obviously can make this game. The issue is that everyone blew off Lost Crown and The Rogue and so they're probably canning it. Pretty sad.

 

[Gonzito]

We know whats happening. Activists have hijacked the industry and as a result we have incompetency and mediocrity

Nothing will change until they them are fucking gone and we get developers with talent and passion that care for videogames

 

[ScHlAuChi]

Having worked on Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, the dev team sizes and expectations are just way higher compared to back then.
That isnt just player expectation, thats also publisher expectation to make money.
It isnt enough anymore making some money with a good game, its about making ALL the money with a game!
Greed is what ruins modern game development.

 

[Saber]

Obssession with modern trends, not trying to offend people and other redundant priorities.

You just saw yourself they want to "focus on boosting quality" this time. Like... weren't they supposed to be doing that since ever?
Theres clearly a lack of priorities and profissionalism inside Ubisoft.

 

[KyoZz]

HAHA lol xD lmao it's so funny haha #hilarious

Spoiler

 

[justiceiro]

I have to agree. They had like 3 studios help on this and still got out with nothing? There's something very wrong with whoever led this endeavor.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

People keep saying modern games are more expensive and more elaborate but its not like technology stopped evolving. As big as the new games are, the development tech they have now is light years ahead from what they had in the mid 2000s. They act as if it still takes 3 days to render 1 frame of a cutscene.

 

[corgiix3]

Having worked on Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, the dev team sizes and expectations are just way higher compared to back then.
That isnt just player expectation, thats also publisher expectation to make money.
It isnt enough anymore making some money with a good game, its about making ALL the money with a game!
Greed is what ruins modern game develpment.

Big nostalgia for that trilogy and they hit every single time should be proud

 

[chromatic9]

Sands of Time remake might not be a good example as I'm sure even good budgets and development would be difficult to make a return on.

I love the original but most that played the game are 40-50+ years old and I think we've reached a point where it's difficult to get a new audience with so many lower budget games and the set in stone multiplayer games. 10 years ago sure.

 

[corgiix3]

That was my take as well. They obviously can make this game. The issue is that everyone blew off Lost Crown and The Rogue and so they're probably canning it. Pretty sad.

I dont agree. This is a square enix style absurd expectations. Its a 2D game for a franchise that hadnt had a game in 14 years and not even using the actual main character. It sold 1.3 mill in a year.. and it was not $20 like most metroidvania games

 

[thomasmahler]

2003- Prince of Persia sands of time remake is out. (banger)
2004- Prince of Persia warrior within is out (BANGER)
2005- Prince of Persia two thrones is out (banger)

Now ubisoft in over 5+ years cant make a remake of a game THEY THEMSELVES CREATED.

I know modern gaming is more expensive and takes longer but bro there is NO WAY they are this bad dude

The problem is that you got fooled by publishers valuing brand over talent.

THEY didn't create it. Patrice Désilets created Sands of Time with this team.

None of these people are at Ubisoft anymore.

Imagine you replace the Beatles with a bunch of Bozos, but you still call them the Beatles. And now you expect them to write the new Beatles Album.

How do you think that's gonna go for you?

 

[Punished Miku]

I dont agree. This is a square enix style absurd expectations. Its a 2D game for a franchise that hadnt had a game in 14 years and not even using the actual main character. It sold 1.3 mill in a year.. and it was not $20 like most metroidvania games

Well they priced it in line with Metroid Dread I believe. It is what it is. I bought it.

Also I think The Rogue is criminally underrated. One of the best roguelikes I've ever played, way better than Dead Cells. Got almost zero attention. One of the best OST of the year as well. It's almost like the IP dragged it down more than a totally new thing.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

The problem is that you got fooled by publishers valuing brand over talent.

THEY didn't create it. Patrice Désilets created Sands of Time with this team.

None of these people are at Ubisoft anymore.

Imagine you replace the Beatles with a bunch of Bozos, but you still call them the Beatles. And now you expect them to write the new Beatles Album.

How do you think that's gonna go for you?

I used Led Zeppelin as an analogy in the Metroid Prime 4 thread. It's a shitty pub cover band being tasked with creating the new Zeppelin record.

 

[V2Tommy]

What happened to good, properly capitalized, professional, journalism-style thread titles on GAF?

 

[corgiix3]

The problem is that you got fooled by publishers valuing brand over talent.

THEY didn't create it. Patrice Désilets created Sands of Time with this team.

None of these people are at Ubisoft anymore.

Imagine you replace the Beatles with a bunch of Bozos, but you still call them the Beatles. And now you expect them to write the new Beatles Album.

How do you think that's gonna go for you?

Plenty of cover bands can play existing Beatles music just fine. The game is literally right there its all figured out already. Legit all you gota do is make it look pretty and its still to much for these clowns.

 

[corgiix3]

I used Led Zeppelin as an analogy in the Metroid Prime 4 thread. It's a shitty pub cover band being tasked with creating the new Zeppelin record.

To be fair they did the remake well at least

 

[AJUMP23]

UBI today is not the UBI of 20 years ago. They forced out all the people with talent and replaced them with girl bosses.

 

[Fbh]

Real talk: because from corporate point of view this will mostly appeal to a subset of the fans of the original i.e. you are not expanding the market with it. Remeber that Ubislop is in super GAAS mode, it's either super good niche games like the PoP or Valiant Hearts or mega GAAS, nothing in between. My guess is PoP remake was too costly for them.

Well yeah but you could argue the POP remake became too costly because they didn't expect it would take 2 of their teams over half a decade to remake a 9 hours long Ps2 game.
This is the type of project that makes financial sense if you can have a relatively small team make it in 2-3 years

 

[HRK69]

5 years of dev hell is beyond incompetence

They probably could've shipped a solid remaster years ago or handed it to a smaller team but corporate ego and bureaucracy won

Having worked in offices, I know the vibe: 4-hour 'alignment' meetings, then devs kill time in the cantine or beanbag zone because everything needs 8 layers of approval. Scope creeps, no one ships without 'perfect vision' and suddenly 6 years pass.

 

[Punished Miku]

Well yeah but you could argue the POP remake became too costly because they didn't expect it would take 2 of their teams over half a decade to remake a 9 hours long Ps2 game.
This is the type of project that makes financial sense if you can have a relatively small team make it in 2-3 years

They really blew it on this one. We're in the era of bigger budget remakes like MG3, RE2, 3, 4, Silent Hill 2. Should have been a real flagship title for them.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

The obsession with chasing a "modern audience" that isn't even looking for what they're offering is ruining them.

Sands of time is already a diverse game and has a girl boss. Fantastic game by the way one of the classics.

I can understand that modern Ubisoft doesn't want to touch the sequel though...

 

[Ellis]

SoT deserved a remake/remaster with more love and care out into it. This doesn't seem to have been the case from what we have seen. It looked like shit.

That said, it could be down to the budget the team were given. Not necessarily untalented devs that don't know how to respectfully "upgrade" the existing game.

 

[Laptop1991]

They think more about mtx and profit than making really good games, not every game will sell millions, doesn't mean it still can't be a good game though, they just look at profit margins now.

 

[PeteBull]

2003- Prince of Persia sands of time remake is out. (banger)
2004- Prince of Persia warrior within is out (BANGER)
2005- Prince of Persia two thrones is out (banger)

Now ubisoft in over 5+ years cant make a remake of a game THEY THEMSELVES CREATED.

I know modern gaming is more expensive and takes longer but bro there is NO WAY they are this bad dude

Thats what happens when u hire parasites that care only about activism, bro, some noname eastern european or chinese dev studio would do splendid job in 2 max 3 years at very low cost if given the chance, but there efficiency and quality matters, not blue-coloured hair and what u got between ur legs
It reminds me this one time women went on strike and suddenly ppl realised job is done faster/smoother/less quarell and no HR needed

 

[Sentenza]

Having worked on Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, the dev team sizes and expectations are just way higher compared to back then.
That isnt just player expectation, thats also publisher expectation to make money.
It isnt enough anymore making some money with a good game, its about making ALL the money with a game!
Greed is what ruins modern game development.

I would accept the argument of "expectations these days are higher" if we could at least get competent remakes out of these absurd timeline.
Last time they showed something about the (now canned) Sands of Time remake that was being worked on by an indian studio it looked beyond disappointing.

Not even a straight upgrade over the original and in some areas even uglier.

I'll reserve judgment for when they show it again, but if as a studio you can't SIGNIFICANTLY improve the visual appeal of a remake you have to start questioning what's the point of making one in the first place.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Release a mediocre product, hire a bunch of soulless entities to gas light people into thinking it's a good product, eventually mediocre product tails off into obscurity, repeat once again.

Only when that doesn't work is there any real change such as a determined effort to fix and improve product over time with updates.

Narcissism is bigger than ever which is the root cause, a reluctance to look within only when it's the last thing to do. People telling each other what they want to hear and it affects the games. You only have to look at Microsoft and what has happened to Xbox for example.

 

[kpopSuperstar]

Having worked on Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, the dev team sizes and expectations are just way higher compared to back then.
That isnt just player expectation, thats also publisher expectation to make money.
It isnt enough anymore making some money with a good game, its about making ALL the money with a game!
Greed is what ruins modern game development.

What did you do on the game?

 

[dgproject]

Gaming industry todays is way bigger than in the past decade, and there are expectations that they will get more and more audiences. But the reality is different, new audiences mostly play new games: Minecraft, roblox, fortnite, pubg, genshin, etc.

Some publishers successfully capture the new audiences: Nintendo, tencent, netease, even small publishers like team cherry.

Sadly most old publishers can't capture the heart of the audiences, I think they failed to know what the audiences wanted and instead chasing the wrong audiences. I think ubisoft is in this criteria.

 

[ScHlAuChi]

I would accept the argument of "expectations these days are higher" if we could at least get competent remakes out of these absurd timeline.
Last time they showed something about the (now canned) Sands of Time remake that was being worked on by an indian studio it looked beyond disappointing.
Not even a straight upgrade over the original and in some areas even uglier.
I'll reserve judgment for when they show it again, but if as a studio you can't SIGNIFICANTLY improve the visual appeal of a remake you have to start questioning what's the point of making one in the first place.

And why are you surprised by that?
Ubi wants to invest as little as possible to extract max money!
Look how well that worked for the GTA Trilogy Remasters which were done by a tiny mobile studio and turned out to be total garbage.
And yet those crappy remasters sold over 14 million!

 

[ScHlAuChi]

What did you do on the game?

Leveldesign, but I was one of the 3 unlucky people who got their level cut to get the game done by Xmas ;P

 

[Loomy]

Based on where Prince of Persia sits in their new restructure, we're likely getting more side-scrolling PoP games like Lost Crown going forward.

 

[Lambogenie]

Real talk: because from corporate point of view this will mostly appeal to a subset of the fans of the original i.e. you are not expanding the market with it. Remeber that Ubislop is in super GAAS mode, it's either super good niche games like the PoP or Valiant Hearts or mega GAAS, nothing in between. My guess is PoP remake was too costly for them.

This is what can get frustrating. Alienate fans to acquire a new, unknown audience. Try spin offs for that, maybe not as crazy as something like Kingdom Hearts, maybe Mario or Pokémon.

Always chasing growth, never satisfied.

 

[diffusionx]

The problems have nothing to do with technology or gamers demanding too high standards or "greed", read about GT Interactive or EA or 3DO in the 1990s they were very greedy. The problems started during Xbox 360 and are:
1. Staffs grew larger, which meant that companies had to draw on more normies and become more bureaucratized to function. Think more project managers, English majors with no interest in games writing for them, etc.
2. With more normies seeing gaming as a regular career path, came the focus on things like no crunch, 9-to-5, more churn, less passion.
3. GamerGate brought tons of scrutiny to the staff, the usual HR "initiatives", focus on things other than competence, and a tremendous amount of power was taken by game writers like Kotaku and Shreier, it got to the point where a single employee complaining to one of these blogs could do serious damage to a company. Then you have #MeToo type purges which hit Ubisoft in particular hard.
4. COVID really did seem to shut down the game industry for 2 years, and companies seemed to be scared of their employees, largely as a result of #3.

If you think these companies operate at a lower level and are less competent than they used to be, you are right.

 

[diffusionx]

I would accept the argument of "expectations these days are higher" if we could at least get competent remakes out of these absurd timeline.
Last time they showed something about the (now canned) Sands of Time remake that was being worked on by an indian studio it looked beyond disappointing.

Not even a straight upgrade over the original and in some areas even uglier.

I'll reserve judgment for when they show it again, but if as a studio you can't SIGNIFICANTLY improve the visual appeal of a remake you have to start questioning what's the point of making one in the first place.

You will never see it again, Sand of T ime remake was canceled bro.

 

[K' Dash]

2003- Prince of Persia sands of time remake is out. (banger)
2004- Prince of Persia warrior within is out (BANGER)
2005- Prince of Persia two thrones is out (banger)

Now ubisoft in over 5+ years cant make a remake of a game THEY THEMSELVES CREATED.

I know modern gaming is more expensive and takes longer but bro there is NO WAY they are this bad dude

Well, development of modern games is exponentially more complex now, lots of moving parts. That is one of the reasons why AI + Human in the loop adoption is paramount, there are a lot of tasks that devs can delegate to AI, like documentation, unit testing, boilerplate code, optimization, etc. and they can focus on more important things.

IIRC they (Ubisoft) had an external studio handle the development of Sands of Time, they took it back (much like Nintendo did with MP4 and Scamco) and couldn't salvage it, it seems.

 

[xanaum]

Sands of time is already a diverse game and has a girl boss. Fantastic game by the way one of the classics.

I can understand that modern Ubisoft doesn't want to touch the sequel though...

Yes, female characters, but very sexy and feminine, which is apparently too much for today's "modern audience."

Ubisoft doesn't want to upset people like the ones in that thread "# Why women criticise sexualised character designs" on that certain purple forum.

 

[lughnasadh123]

These threads become entertaining as people just project their own personal beef on the industry rather than identifying individual reasons for each company.

 

[SlimySnake]

The problem is that you got fooled by publishers valuing brand over talent.

THEY didn't create it. Patrice Désilets created Sands of Time with this team.

None of these people are at Ubisoft anymore.

Imagine you replace the Beatles with a bunch of Bozos, but you still call them the Beatles. And now you expect them to write the new Beatles Album.

How do you think that's gonna go for you?

Bloober didnt create Silent Hill 2. They made an amazing remake.

The talent is still there at Ubisoft. They are making some gorgeous looking games still. The problem is the management. Ubisoft's CEO's son was literally cancelling games he didnt like and running his mouth in meetings with creative leads.

This is all on management.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Working from home, the right people can't get offended by the product while it's in development. Then they see the almost-finished product one month before release, and they demand for it to be cancelled.

(you know it's possible)

The business explanations would make sense only if corporate didn't run the numbers before greenlighting projects. I mean, I'm supposed to believe the PoP remake has been in the works for this long and only now someone thought "hey, this isn't going to get us any new customers, it's just a nostalgia fix for maybe 100,000 35-something if we're very lucky, abort abort abort"? If a company this big is this stupid, they deserve everything that's coming at them.

 

[ADiTAR]

Today's "creative" people don't have the same spark or drive. They just wanna come, work, go home and drink/smoke until they sleep.

I compare the people I manage today to the people I worked with 20 years ago, it's like a sad contrast.

 

[Sohurmk833]

Same thing that happened to movies. Idiots got in charge and hired other idiots. DEI is a big part of the problem. Instead of capable people getting the job they stuffed their studios with purple haired clowns.

 

[winjer]

I loved Ubisoft during the first decade of the century, and a bit of the second. Every time I saw that logo, it meant top quality.
Now it's the exact opposite. It makes me angry and sad that Ubisoft went from being one of the very best, to one of the worst gaming companies.

 

[Zacfoldor]

I knew yall would be pissed about this, lol. I'm with you sirs.

 

[kiphalfton]

Red tape

 

[Jesb]

It's really embarrassing that they can't even make a remake. I have zero faith in anything they make.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Ubisoft has just been making the worst calls for a long, long time now.