Ubisoft Plans Prince of Persia Movie Game

Ubisoft appears to be taking videogame tie-ins to a whole new level with the planned development of a Prince of Persia videogame based upon the upcoming Prince of Persia movie, which is based upon the Prince of Persia videogame.

The Prince of Persia franchise, originally launched in 1989 for Apple, MS-DOS, Atari ST and other systems, is being "rebooted" by Ubisoft with an entirely new game set for launch in Fall 2008 that abandons the characters and backstory established in the 2003 release Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. A Prince of Persia movie, directed by Mike Newell and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, is slated to follow in 2009, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Prince Dastan and Gemma Arterton as the "feisty and exotic" princess Tamina.

In conjunction with that, according to GameDaily, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said the company is planning a second new Prince of Persia title, this one based on the movie and completely unrelated to the retooled version of the game. Speaking at the Ubidays 08 press conference in Paris, Guillemot said the game is currently planned for release at the same time as the movie, although other details have not yet been settled.

The article also speculates that Jordan Mechner, who created the original Prince of Persia as well as the Sands of Time relaunch in 2003, could return to work with Ubisoft on the movie version of the game. Mechner was not involved with Ubisoft's latest update to the franchise, but handled scriptwriting duties for the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie and still holds the Prince of Persia IP.

"My goal in writing the Prince of Persia screenplay was not to copy the Sands of Time videogame storyline beat for beat, but rather to craft a new story that would live up to the genre of those classic swashbuckling, romantic action-adventure movies that inspired the games in the first place," Mechner said in an earlier interview. "Whether or not you've played the videogame, the movie needs to stand on its own."

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Wow. Didn't they learn anything from the "Street Fighter: The Movie" game?

Or Spyhunter: the Game of the Movie?

Seems pretty concrete news between "too early to talk" and "for now - no", but if GameDaily say they heard Guillemot tell them I guess it's totaly not a publicity stunt on their part.

Whichever the case: ridiculous.

This bit o' entertainment news has a level of awesome that demolishes everything that comes before. My inner fan-boy is having multiple orgasms at the thought of taking the best non-RPG narrative ever told in a videogame and taking it to the masses.

I sense a corntastic name: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time The Movie The Game.
total number of "THE": 3

So...in effect, this would be...a game adaptation of a movie adaptation of a game that was a remake of another game altogether?

No, no, no, no! This will not end well! While I don't have any prejudice against the movie, I just can't understand making a game based on a movie based on a game. Why not just simply make a game? Granted, this is Disney, so they likely want to cash in on the kids who saw the movie but never played the other games. But still, it can't end well, simply because it's an adaptation of an adaptation. There will be too much Adaptation Decay...

That's like making a cake similar to a cake that's based on a cake which is a remake of a cake.

If that makes absolutely no sense, don't worry. Neither does the above article.

And that's too much cake anyways. I'm sick of it already.

Fail company is fail.

...*looks at date on the article* Hmm... *looks at date on post 8* Holy cow. Talk about your thread necros. Seriously, this article is a year old. If it was going to happen, it would have.

Hey if it plays like the first or even two thrones prince I'll play it.

A game based on a movie that's based on a game...don't they see what's wrong with that?

thebobmaster:
...*looks at date on the article* Hmm... *looks at date on post 8* Holy cow. Talk about your thread necros. Seriously, this article is a year old. If it was going to happen, it would have.

My thought exactly... I think it's funny when I see a necro thread like this...