Even though Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was Ubisoft's best game of the last decade, it performed poorly at the box office, according to Ubisoft. Michael Douse, publishing director at Larian, knows why.
After Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown flopped despite great reviews, plans for a sequel were scrapped. Now Michael Douse, publishing director at Larian Studios, gives his perspective on the flop and why Ubisoft itself is to blame for the situation.
BG3 exec takes aim at Ubisoft
It all started with Ubisoft's strategy. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was not offered on Steam at the time of its release, only on Ubisoft's own launcher. It wasn't until 7 months later that the game was released on Steam, but by then the damage had already been done.
According to Michael Douse, it should have been released directly on Steam, because without the visibility on Steam, Prince of Persia could never meet the high expectations of Ubisoft.
The last notable game on their platform was arguably Far Cry 6 in 2021. The Crew, Mirage and Avatar came in 2023 and didn't perform, so you can assume subscriptions were at a lull when PoP released by 2024. Which means people wouldn't be launching their store all too much.If it... https://t.co/uiC167uxGG
— Very AFK (@Cromwelp) October 23, 2024
And then Douse went further, and attacked Ubisoft's Director of Subscriptions, Philippe Tremblay, who made this statement at the beginning of the year:
Gamers are used to owning their games. That's the consumer shift that needs to happen
As Douse responded:
If the statement "gamers should get used to not owning their games" is true because of a specific release strategy (sub above sales), then the statement "developers must get used to not having jobs if they make a critically acclaimed game" (platform strategy above title sales) is...
— Very AFK (@Cromwelp) October 23, 2024
We're certainly more team-Larian rather than team-Ubisoft, and some of what Douse claims is absolutely correct, but it's also worth noting that The Lost Crown was far from perfect. Still, it is a shame we won't be getting a sequel.