Ubisoft Has Cancelled Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time Remake And Five Other Titles Amidst A Company Restructure

Ubisoft has announced the cancellation of six in-development projects, including Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake, as the video game publisher/developer undergoes a company-wide restructure.

As detailed in a recent press release, Ubisoft has announced a retooling of its assets and portfolios to achieve financial stability. The immediate ramifications of these changes include the cancellation of six games, including the aforementioned Sands of Time Remake, and the delay of a further seven titles, which will remain in development. While the specific details remain fairly watertight, the cancellation of Prince of Persia was made public via a social media post from the official Prince of Persia channels, confirming that “While the project had real potential, we weren’t able to reach the level of quality you deserve, and continuing would have required more time and investment than we could responsibly commit.”

The Sands of Time Remake was originally revealed back in 2020 during an Ubisoft Forward event, with Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai helming the project. After multiple delays, the game’s development was put on hold in 2021 following intense scrutiny of its less-than-stellar trailer that didn’t live up to expectations. In 2022, it was announced that the original game’s developer, Ubisoft Montreal, would be taking over the reins, leading many to believe that the remake just might be back on track. Despite another teaser trailer popping up at last year’s Ubisoft Forward promising a 2026 release, it looks like it’s the end of the line for the Prince.

The bad news keeps on coming. As part of this restructuring, Ubisoft will be shutting down two studios, Ubisoft Halifax and Ubisoft Stockholm. While the mobile-focused Halifax studio was known to be closing as of last week, with the team having just voted to unionise, the Stockholm closure is fresh news. While the Swedish studio was working on a new IP, it also has credits within the first-person RPG, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

As if things couldn’t be more dire, it was also mentioned within the release that restructuring efforts and layoffs would also affect Ubisoft Abu Dhabi, Trials developer RedLynx, and The Division developer Massive Entertainment. All of this life-altering news came under the heading “Acceleration of cost reduction initiatives to rightsize the organisation and improvestructural efficiency.” Touching.

Looking at the actual restructuring part of this restructuring process, Ubisoft has broken its portfolio into five “creative houses” that will apparently streamline development and, more importantly to the bottom line, “[place] creative and financial accountability closer to where value is created.”

The first house, while the others are just referred to by number. The breakdown of each creative house is as follows:

• Creative House #1 / Vantage Studios | Focused on the biggest brands: Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six
• Creative House #2 | Focused on competitive and cooperative shooters – The Division, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell
• Creative House #3 | Focused on live experiences – For Honor, The Crew, Riders Republic, Brawlhalla, Skull & Bones
• Creative House #4 | Focused on fantasy, magic, and narrative experiences – Anno, Might & Magic, Rayman, Prince of Persia, Beyond Good & Evil
• Creative House #5 | Focused on family-friendly games – Just Dance, Idle Miner Tycoon, Ketchapp, Hungry Shark, Invincible: Guarding the Globe, Uno, Hasbro

The biggest red flag among a sea of crimson is the company’s ethos behind the restructuring. “The new operating model will further empower the execution of the Group’s strategy, centred on Open World Adventures and GaaS-native experiences, supported by targeted investments, deeper specialisation, and cutting-edge technology, including accelerated investments behind player-facing Generative AI.

Bleak.

I’m far from being a business analyst or a financial expert, but the segmenting of properties, closure of studios, and cancellation of projects certainly wouldn’t look out of place for a company that’s gearing up for a partial or complete sale. In any event, the WellPlayed team wish everyone affected by the layoffs and restructuring the best, and hopes they all find fulfilling employment as soon as possible.

Do you have thoughts on this mess of an Ubisoft situation? Let us know in the comments or on our social media.