Prince Of Persia's Sales Struggle is A Shame, But Not Surprising

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a great game, but sometimes that's not enough.

[SpacedDuck]

Not a shame at all. UBI should get used to people not buying their games. They told us to get used to not owning them after all.

[Barlos]

Exactly. So they can get comfortable not v getting my money.

[Redemption-64]

And this is why it best to ignore fake outrage like this online based of lies. The guy was talking about subscriptions overall, not specifically Ubisoft. I am pro-physical, but what he said is true. Even most of those who buy digital don't even own those games. It's just a licensed. Those who promote Xbox GP are a good example. You don't own any of those games and if you subscribe to it, then you are OK not owning the games you choose to play and no buy.

This is also some miserable excuse. Imagine if due to the poor sales of this single player game, Ubisoft makes the studio make a live service game next? I bet most of the people who refused to support it will lose their minds

[EvertonFC]

It's a great game too, just gamers being sheep 🐑 and fannies again because they think it's cool.

[Tacoboto]

@Everton & Redemption

I bought the title on PS5 because the demo was fantastic and is the type of game I want to play and support.

But Ubisoft has such awful documented corporate culture, it's easy to look away on that basis alone. Then they go out of their way, in any context, to suggest ownership is bad and we need to get used to not owning our games.

It's not being a sheep at all, in any way, to not buy the games from a corporation that is actively saying we need to stop buying games.

If Ubisoft wants the titles they think we want to sell, they need to show us and tell us they're a company worth supporting. My purchase was made based on the merits of the game and how much I liked the demo, and it being from Ubisoft was the biggest con weighing against it.

[Redemption-64]

@Tacoboto
Ubisoft never said or suggested ownership is bad. This is when you know people are not just sheep, but you know those who read the interview, vs the gullible sheep who just read the headline or regurgitate what their favorite YouTuber told them.

The guy was talking about what needs to happen before subscription services become a more significant slice of the video game business. The guy was literally talking about subscriptions services across the whole industry, yet fake people kept making it sound like he was talking about Ubisoft. A lot of gamers are so gullible, they will willingly lead themselves to the slaughter house, but will attack anyone that points it out to them. You literally have people on this site, Twitter and other social media platforms who keep promoting and championing Game Pass as the best deal in gaming. None of these people own the games they play on GP. Those people are happy to play those games without owning them. Yet you guys get triggered/mad at the guy who points out the obvious? For GP and other subscription service to keep growing, more and more people have to comfortable with not owning their games. That is just a fact and how Game Pass works. I am no fan of subscription service for games, but if you have GP and play most of your games through that, you should be agreeing with him, because you are literally the type of person he is talking about.

[SpacedDuck]

The same studio that has ruined Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, Skull and Bones, Assassins Creed and countless other IPs due to horrendous leadership?

[Redemption-64]

@SpacedDuck

And what happened when the made a good game? Rather than supporting it, people are here complaining and refusing to supporting, then go crying when said game is put on ice. It's almost some people don't want them to make good games, so they could things to complain about.

[garos82]

exactly this, i wanted to buy avatar and this prince of persia game both this month and made a stand , so ill find them second hand somewhere instead.

[isarai]

People in want THE Prince of Persia, not some rando in a 2d sidesscroller

[-Foxtrot]

Not to knock the quality but it felt like it was originally a Immortals Fenyx Rising spin off game and they changed it shortly after development

[saint_seya]

Well i remember playing the first Prince of Persia in a PC with DOS and was a sidesscroller.

[Aggesan]

Exactly. Youngsters these days don't know their history.

[ShwaaMan]

This doesn’t surprise me (based on Ubisofts recent claims about NOT owning). But it IS frustrating because I bought it and it is FANTASTIC, I am having trouble putting it down. It’s one of the best Metroidvania’s I have played in years.
Unfortunately, with low sales it means the corporate execs are less likely to invest in games like this and will push GaaS more because they don’t understand their audience at all.
Hopefully it spreads by word of mouth and eventually becomes somewhat of a sleeper hit because I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone interested in the genre(which has become a bit over saturated the last few years). It stands up there with Hollow Knight and the GOATs, yes really.

[Redemption-64]

I have no idea, why people intentionally misinterpret what he said. I never knew game subscriptions only exclusive to Ubisoft. People just see a topic and never read pass the headline and run with it

[Si-Fly]

The problem is that whilst it might get close to being as good as an Ori or HK Ubisoft decided it needed to cost twice as much as those games! I can’t wait to play it but I’ll wait until it’s half price.

[Redemption-64]

The problem is people crying and not supporting the type of games they claim they want. Imagine if this was a live service game? The usual suspects would be screaming on top of a mountain about how this game sold poorly because it's a live service game. Yet, as I keep saying, watch the same people who never cared to support this game start a hate campaign if Ubisoft decideds to make the studio work on a live service game or decided to out the game on ice.

Also, I don't see any price on the budget of this game.

[Barlos]

But I'm trying to get comfortable with not owning Ubisoft games, so I'm not buying them.

[EvertonFC]

🐑🐑 he got took out of context.

[Barlos]

Tough on him then, he should choose his words more carefully.

[Aloren]

But aren't you the one who said , I quote "I'm trying to get comfortable with not owning Ubisoft games" , so I guess that means you agree with his out of context quote ? Maybe you should choose your words more carefully.

See ? That's how out of context work. That's just playing dumb for the sake of it, hoping others will catch the bait.

[TheProfessional]

The style of this just doesn't seem like Prince of Persia. Would've preferred Sands remake first

[-Foxtrot]

I’m hoping the remake will knock it out of the park if the quality is there

We need the 3D games to make a return so they stop relying on AC

[MaximusPrime_]

Well I downloaded and played the demo without knowing what kind of game it would be.

I didn't expect it to be 2D side-scrolling game. The pro - good to have a retro feel, keeping it to the original. Com - it's not what I wanted. I kind of prefer the proper open world 3D, like the one released on PS3.

[hiawa23]

Really enjoying the game as Ubi is one of my favorite devs. If people are missing out on good games, well, that's on them.

[alexkarkar]

If people don't buy Ubisoft games it means Ubisoft will stop making them. Strange you don't understand this.

[hiawa23]

You can be cordial without taking that tone. No patience talking to toxic people hidden behind a screen. I run a business so I understand this better than most. I am fine with digital games, so we will have to agree respectfully to disagree and leave it there. If you are are not, well, you are well within your right to boycott, let your voice be heard, fight the good fight, but you don't get to tell the rest of us gamers what we should or should not do.

[Barlos]

I don't feel like I'm missing out on this. There's plenty of other games keeping me occupied right now.

[SimpleSlave]

"The high price tag of the game compared to indie Metroidvanias makes it hard for consumers to justify the expense."

It's the price. $30 is the sweet spot for this type of games and releases. Especially if not a Limited Run type. $50 ain't it.

Just another excellent decision by Ubisawft.

[badz149]

Ubi didn't get the notice. Only Nintendo is allowed to sell side scrollers for $50 nowadays.

[boing1]

Pricing is killing this game. No one will pay almost a triple A price for a 2d game. Not today.

[badz149]

see my comment above...unless it's Nintendo

[Barlos]

Agree. It's around £50 in the UK. I paid less for Elden Ring at its launch (£45) and it has way more content. As you say, PoP is overpriced for what it is. Maybe if it was around the £35 mark it would be more attractive.

Edit: just checked Amazon and right now it's £38.99. That's getting closer to what the price point should be.

[shinoff2183]

Well one is it's the price. The demo seemed pretty cool but not 50 dollars cool. Its a 20 dollar game maybe 25. Imo.

[senorfartcushion]

Just looks the same as everything design-wise except they slammed the mechanics into a metroidvania game.

The dev team are following industry trends too much, both In terms of how the game looks as well as how it plays.

[StarcrossedBits]

Demo was fun but I don't like the new main character. Also it's Ubisoft, so it will be on sale for 30% off in a few weeks and will be 50% off in a few months. Even with all the Ubisoft hate aside, there's little reason to buy an Ubisoft game at launch. Wait a few weeks/months and it will *definitely* be on sale. They're more reliable about that than any other publisher.

[Tzuno]

Maybe make games less woke

[alexkarkar]

the game looks ugly, main protagonist, graphics, style. ugly all around. i'm glad it's struggling

[Gabrielmpf]

One of the problems is the price. I'll get it when it's half price.

[cloganart]

Great game. But these GaaS are sadly dominating the gaming economy. That's why it's great when we have premiere single-player releases break records. But despite that, all these companies are now churning out more and more GaaS for a long-form steady source of income.

Curious about where this will take us.

[INMATEofARKHAM]

I didn't even realize the game released. It's not on Steam so it's easy to forget it even exists especially when they started bringing their games back to Steam.

Edit: Also as others pointed out that price tag is crazy for a 2D metroidvania game. You could probably buy the 5 best ever made for that price during a steam sale.

[RhinoGamer88]

It is $50 because of the production costs and long (delayed) development. Both issues that UBI's production and leadership need to be accountable for.

[dadavis1992]

I mean for starters, maybe they should release it on Steam FFS

[TheEnigma313]

Ubi doesn't have the best reputation these days.

[DFresh]

It's pretty hard to justify spending full retail on what looks like a downloadable side scroller.

[bigfish]

Ubisoft need to allocate abit more of their funds to marketing, I bet the average gamer doesn't even know this game exists.

[BrainSyphoned]

Why would I pay full price to add another indy style title to my backlog when it will be a PS plus or service title before I get around to it? I am already comfortable not needing to own everything.

[RonsonPL]

It's a really shitty Prince of Persia game.
There are people who know the PoP brand and like it. They didn't get the PoP game.
All the stuff looks like taken from an anime and the gameplay is a Metroidvania focused on challenging difficulty, because souls games are now popular.
Also the graphics are gimped down to 2005 x360, cause that's what Switch is. Basically an x360 with just a bit more memory. The visuals are compromised as hell because of that.

The other group of people, who never played Prince of Persia, didn't know about the game. They don't know the brand. Those who love anime and games like this, would love the new game if it was named otherwise, preferably a license from some anime movie or tv series, so they would at least target the right group of people. The style of movement, the camera work, the special effects. ALL OF THAT is pulled directly from animes. Why not call it Princemon or Prince Ballz or Demon Sands. Or Samurai of Persia. Or Ghost in the Sand. Whatever vibes with the weebs out there.

I played all the PoP games and fell in love with the series in 1991 when I played it for the first time. And I am not going to play this one even if it's being given for free.
The visual style is very off-putting. The characters and animations have nothing in common with the vibe the first games had. There's no PoP magic here. And releasing a game with technical levels gimped down to a 19 year old console, is not only bad. It's insulting to the fans of PoP.
Also. The fans of sidescrolling games are mostly older people. And yet, they made this one for people 10-20, with stupid Fornite like characters and all the japaneese elements mixed in.
What a surprise the game didn't succeed.

I'll get 50-100 downvotes for this post, mostly from people who didn't read half of this comment, but to the rest, let me be clear. Prince of Persia:The Lost Crown is a good game objectively. It's just an utterly shitty and misguided Prince of Persia entry.

also, F Ubisoft in general.

[Chocoburger]

I don't support Ubi-junk anymore, they burned bridges with me by constantly releasing rushed out sloppy trash, or filler and grindy trash, or generic boring trash. Take your pick. Once you burn a bridge with me, its done and over with. Even when they release a good game, they still won't see my support or money.

This is what happens when you disrespect your fanbase, there's no going back.