Prince of Persia concept video appears—and confirms why series has been dormant

Enlarge / What could have been. (credit: Ubisoft)

The classic computer gaming series Prince of Persia has enjoyed a long, healthy life as a fan favorite-both in its '80s side-scrolling form and its mid-'00s rebirth as a 3D series. But after 2010's PoP: The Forgotten Sands, the series' newer handlers at Ubisoft remained mum about why PoP's 3D fork stopped getting sequels or "HD" re-releases.

That changed this week with the discovery of a polished concept video titled Prince of Persia: Redemption. This three-minute video of flashy combat and collapsing buildings was published on YouTube all the way back in 2012-and remained undiscovered by fans, along with former Ubisoft developers, until Wednesday.

Former Ubisoft animator Jonathan Cooper took the video's fresh discovery as an opportunity to confirm its authenticity. He posted on Twitter that the Redemption video was formally developed in-house at Ubisoft as a "pre-rendered game pitch," and an eagle-eyed series fan at ResetERA was able to date its development as a one-year effort at Ubisoft Montreal between 2010 and 2011.

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