Developing video games is a tricky business, and it can be full of pitfalls and problems that cause delays or even cancel titles before they can release. Even veteran development teams in established studios have issues, and this means fans can get more than a little anxious while they wait for games to launch.Ubisoftalready has a crowded slate of releases, but in 2020 it announced that it is working on a remake of the 2003 action-adventure titlePrince of Persia: Sands of Time. But this wasn’t the only nostalgia hit Ubisoft was hoping for, as it revealed the following year that aSplinter Cellremake had also been greenlit.
Remaking decades-old games and bringing them into the modern market with all of its technological and graphical advancements can be an incredibly exciting endeavor for fans of the originals, and it can also help to bring them to new audiences as well. However, even with a solid basis of previous games in the series to use as a foundation, remakes can still face a rocky uphill path on the journey to release. Unfortunately, it seems like both thePrince of PersiaandtheSplinter Cellremakesmight have a few reasons to make players concerned, based on the lack of any substantive news.
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Ubisoft’s Lack Of Updates
Not every studio is the same, and not every game’s development is the same. Some titles have regular updates throughout the majority of their development, but others have very infrequent and usually fairly vague insights into how they’re shaping up. Up until recently, Bethesda was remaining remarkably secretive about itsupcoming new IPStarfieldeven years after it was announced, but although the game has been delayed it appears to be coming along steadily, and fans have been shown a lot more of it in the past few weeks. Not every game that is fairly tight-lipped about how its development is going is necessarily in trouble, but sometimes silence can be a cause for concern.
It may only have been less than a year since Ubisoft announced theSplinter Cellremake, but six months have passed now and players don’t really know any more about the upcoming game than they did in December. Thestate of thePrince of Persiaremake seems even more worrisome, with rumors about a very troubled development recently gaining credence with the announcement of yet another delay. The game has now been delayed indefinitely, with the window of its release growing even more distant thanks to the disappointing news from Ubisoft this month.
What It Could Mean For The Remakes
ThePrince of Persiaremake was previously scheduled for a tentative release during Ubisoft’s Fiscal Year 2023, but with this delay moving it out of that timeframe and the game even getting delisted from GameStop’s database, the future of the title seems more and more uncertain. This doesn’t mean that it’s canceled, but indefinite delays are never usually a good sign. The game also swapped developers earlier in the year, with thePrince of Persiaremake changing handsfrom Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai to Ubisoft Montreal. All of this, and the distinct lack of any positive news regarding the game, doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence inPrince of Persiafans.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist, the last entry in the franchise, is coming up to a decade since release next year, so while fans haven’t had to wait quite as long asPrince of Persiaplayers for a new mainline game, it’s still a substantive amount of time. A remake of the first game was a welcome announcement, and many thought it made more sense to take the series back to basics and reboot it rather than attempt to reawaken it from its dormant state with another sequel. Development was still in the early stages at the end of 2021, so it’s unlikely there’s much to show at the moment.
However, with the series' 20th anniversary fast approaching, fans are hoping there will be something soon, otherwise it might indicate thatSplinter Cellis injust as much hot water as thePrince of Persiaremakeappears to be in.
