Word of a canned Prince of Persia game, Prince of Persia: Redemption, is making the rounds because of pre-rendered footage. Strangely, said footage has been on YouTube for roughly eight years. The internet at-large is just noticing it today, however. It’s an extensive bit of footage, too, spanning a tad over three minutes in length. Parkour, intense battles, mini-bosses, and the time-manipulating mechanic all take center-stage.
See the video below, courtesy of Daniel Ahmad on Twitter:
Ahmad’s tweet of the Prince of Persia: Redemption footage garnered the attention of Jonathan Cooper, a former animation artist for the likes of The Last of Us Part II and Assassin’s Creed III. According to Cooper, the video is from a “pre-rendered game pitch,” which went on to inspire the pitch for the aforementioned Assassin’s Creed title. Cooper’s tweet is linked below:
Wow – haven’t seen this in ages. Amazing work from animation director Khai Nguyen (For Honor) and team. This target game footage (pre-rendered game pitch) inspired our own pitch for Assassin’s Creed 3 as they did such a great job making it look like real gameplay. https://t.co/U9cy7v4fNp
— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) May 6, 2020
Gematsu notes Prince of Persia: Redemption may have been in the works as far back as 2010. This assumption is based on the LinkedIn profile of Christophe Prélot, a former Ubisoft developer. Prélot served as a 3D Level Artist between April 2010 and 2011 on a Prince of Persia project he describes on his page as “Untitled Canceled.” Redemption certainly seems to fit into this timeline.
Barring a For Honor event, Prince of Persia has been dormant for several years. Franchise creator Jordan Mechner has voiced interest in bringing it back; of course, such a decision needs Ubisoft to give the final say. The publisher’s recent registration of a Prince of Persia 6 domain name suggests it hasn’t completely turned its back on the beloved series. So maybe hope’s still alive for the time being.
[Source: Daniel Ahmad, Jonathan Cooper on Twitter]
