Prince of Persia 3 was in development a few years ago and then cancelled

[FluffyQuack]

Jordan Mechner revealed that he tells the story of the unannounced and cancelled Prince of Persia 3 in his Replay book:
https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/latest ... liffhanger
https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/books/replay/

[...] the book tells my own story of how Prince of Persia 3 got green-lit, then cancelled — twice: first in 1993, then in 2019.

He mentions he started making a game in 2016, so that might be when POP3 started development (for the second time). The blog posts also mention that parts of the same dev team went on to make the recently announced Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

It's pretty surreal that after all this time a sequel to POP2 was actually in development. Too bad it got cancelled. It wasn't even announced and we never got to see anything of it.

[Alberto]

At this point I don't even want 'a game', I just want a document similar to the PoP2 Bible, just to have a glance at the ideas that could have been.

If by some miraculous stroke of luck we do end up getting PoP3, I personally would like it to be as close as possible to the original titles: A compelling story, pixel art, simple commands, and challenging platforming. Part of what I like about the original games is that the Kid/Prince feels so human, the single feats he accomplishes are humanly possible, and the dangers are a real concern, e.g. the traps hit him in a realistic way with realistic outcomes, you can't grab a ledge if you're falling to fast. What I mean to say is that it is set in a world with physical limitations similar to ours.

[FluffyQuack]

If by some miraculous stroke of luck we do end up getting PoP3, I personally would like it to be as close as possible to the original titles: A compelling story, pixel art, simple commands, and challenging platforming. Part of what I like about the original games is that the Kid/Prince feels so human, the single feats he accomplishes are humanly possible, and the dangers are a real concern, e.g. the traps hit him in a realistic way with realistic outcomes, you can't grab a ledge if you're falling to fast. What I mean to say is that it is set in a world with physical limitations similar to ours.

You described exactly what I would want from a new POP game. The fact it feels very grounded, natural, and intuitive are elements that made POP appeal so much to me. Also the fact the gameplay is very methodical and leads naturally to puzzle-like gameplay of figuring out how to get through a room. And the level design in POP1 and 2 are on-point and combine so well with the gameplay mechanics.

I'm very curious what the new POP3 looked like, but at the same time, I'm sure it played nothing like the originals. As much as I love the first two games, it would probably be impossible to sell a publisher on that kind of gameplay, and I'm afraid many gamers these days would just get frustrated and drop it quickly. There's probably a market for this kind of game, but it would be a niche one. It couldn't sustain a huge budget.

At this point I don't even want 'a game', I just want a document similar to the PoP2 Bible, just to have a glance at the ideas that could have been.

Yeah, that would be fantastic. One thing I've been thinking is that if fans ever learned what Jordan Mechner planned for POP3, then maybe fans could try to make it themselves as a fangame in the style of POP1/2.

[FluffyQuack]

This article has a few more details about the cancelled Prince of Persia 3 title, and also details about another cancelled POP title: https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/rp ... interview/

“I moved to Montpellier eight years ago to make a Prince of Persia game,” Mechner says. “That game won’t see the light of day, but there’s a link between that canceled Prince of Persia project and The Lost Crown. Both were made in Montpellier; The Lost Crown was born out of the ashes of that project. The Lost Crown team is wonderfully talented, and having worked with them on other projects, I know their passion for Prince of Persia. I was very happy to see that many of the things we discussed and researched for unannounced projects made its way into The Lost Crown.”

While Mechner discusses the canceled Prince of Persia projects in Replay, he tells me a bit about both titles that were in the works at Ubisoft prior to 2019. One of those would have been a return to form for Mechner, closing a story that he’d been working on since 1989.

“There were two projects,” Mechner says. “One was a AAA open-world Prince of Persia game. The second project was a 2D sequel, the third episode in the original 2D Prince of Persia trilogy. It was going to be called Princess of Persia. Back in 1993, when I did Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame, I imagined that as the middle episode of a trilogy. The idea was going to be to complete that trilogy today with a small, simple 2D game. But instead of that, we have The Lost Crown, which is wonderful! I think the story has a happy ending.”

[FluffyQuack]

Jordan Mechner recently published the English version of his graphic memoir. You can find purchase details here: https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/books/replay/

The book talks a lot about his life and that of his father and grandfather, but it also reveals some new details about two Prince of Persia titles that were in development just some years ago.

I read the entire book and here are some of the details mentioned:

• The first game was a AAA, open-world Prince of Persia title with a budget over 10 million dollars. An idea mentioned early was having "1001 Nights"-style adventures in a world which you could traverse using horses, camels, or magic carpets. The game eventually changed its title to just Persia because Ubisoft wanted full IP control (deja vu considering what happened to Prince of Persia: Assassins). But it was eventually cancelled after about 2 years.
• That lead to the second game. A smaller budget, 2D game by the name of Princess of Persia that was going to be a direct sequel to Prince of Persia 2: Shadow and the Flame game. Unfortunately, after about 2 years it was cancelled as well.
• Platforms aren't mentioned, but based on when the projects were active (2015 to 2019), it's safe to say they were targeting the PS4 generation.

There's a lot of behind-the-scenes information about the games' development in the book, but there's honestly very few details about the games themselves (I imagine Jordan can't say too much considering Ubisoft owns what was developed and the game industry is notoriously secretive, even when it comes to cancelled games).

[Alberto]

Well, that explains why there has not been a PoP 3 project in all these years, and why a fan project would not be possible either. 😔

I guess the best bet now is to wait for a close enough spiritual successor, but using a different name would not be the same.