Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake aims to combine nostalgia and modernism

It's not due out until 2026, but Ubisoft Montreal has a plan to stay true to the ideas of the original game while updating it for a modern audience.

One of the first challenges was finding the right balance between being faithful to the original game and updating it. According to Bio Jade Creative Director Adam Granger, the line between keeping the "original recipe" intact and tweaking other parts of the experience was very fine.

"Some things will stay the same, like wall running, which is so iconic that we'll try to keep it in its original form," Granger said in a post on Ubisoft's blog. “So is the dagger. There are key elements of the original game that we respect: the temporal powers, the tone of the game, and playing with the feeling that gravity doesn't play a role. But we've updated things like the level design and really increased the scale of the world.”

Game director Michael McIntyre added that combat has also been reworked, but signature moves like mid-air punches and rolling attacks have been kept, so players still feel like acrobatic heroes.

Director Granger also touched on the long development cycle. The game was first revealed at the Ubisoft Forward 2020 fair, but it still has two years of development ahead of it, provided there are no complications. Granger explained that "the remake landscape has changed a lot in the years since Sands of Time was first announced" and that the bar has been set higher. Major changes were made to the characters, camera, and controls, and Ubisoft Montreal had to build prototypes to further refine the gameplay.

“It takes time, skill and people, so we've had reinforcements from other studios to help us do that,” Granger said.

Although the story will remain the same, McIntyre says players will be able to experience more interactions between the prince and his companion, Princess Farah. "Probably the biggest improvement we've made is Farah being more present," McIntyre said. “We were able to add more interactions between her and the prince so you can get more out of their relationship. They will simply spend more time together."

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Prince of Persia franchise, and Ubisoft is celebrating with new content for two of its latest releases. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has more DLC, and in September it will receive the first Mask of Darkness expansion. Currently in early access for PC, The Rogue Prince of Persia's first major update adds a new environment to explore, more weapons, and deadlier enemies to test them out on.