Prince-of-Persia posts (Subscribe to this feed)

The 2008 reboot of the Prince of Persia franchise (which, apparently, is getting shut down) featured some of the most enjoyable snark and pith we've ever heard in a video game. Fortunately, Andy Walsh, the man responsible for the Prince and Elika's sharp-tongued exchanges, was recently recognized for his witty dialogue when he won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Games Award last night in London.

Normally, this is where we'd drop in a quote from Walsh about how excited he was to receive the award, but it doesn't seem that anyone initiated the optional dialogue with him following the Writers' Guild awards ceremony. Too bad, something tells us we've missed out on the best part.

Ubisoft has just announced a new Prince of Persia -- but it's not a sequel to 2008's polarizing adventure (if desired, add unhappy emoticons to sentence). Instead, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will continue the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time trilogy series, complete with "many of the fan-favorite elements" and "new gameplay innovations that gamers have come to expect from the Prince of Persia brand." Oh, and an accompanying film!

You can catch the game's premiere trailer on Spike TV's Video Game Awards on Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 8 p.m. EST. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is scheduled for release on "consoles and handhelds" in May 2010.

The next-to-last day of Steam's "Early Holiday Sale" brings with it an eclectic collection of discounted PC titles, including last year's Prince of Persia ($14.99), Battlefield 2 ($14.99), Lucidity ($2.49) and Guild Wars Trilogy ($24.99). Also, here's a link to a Black Friday sale for a 1TB internal HDD. If you've been following this Steam sale for the past few days, you're probably hurting for hard drive space right about now.

Make sure you free up some room before tomorrow -- at 8 a.m. PST, the last batch of 24-hour sales will be announced. Stay tuned!

The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie won't be in theaters until May 2010, but the marketing winds are already picking up with the release of the first full-length trailer (above) -- and it looks ... kinda good. What's more, the original game's creator, Jordan Mechner, has filed an application for the trademark, "Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands," suggesting that a new game could be in the works. More recent remarks, like those found in this Q&A, seem to indicate that an announcement from Ubisoft is coming shortly.

We attended a group Q&A session with Mechner and movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer last week during the unveiling of the trailer and heard about the legacy of the franchise, casting of Jake Gyllenhaal, plans for a movie sequel, Easter eggs hidden on-screen, and hints of a new game. Leap across the break for the full discussion.

The first official trailer for Jerry Bruckheimer's The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is now up for all the internet to see [update: we've added our embedded version above -- and read our in-depth analysis right here]. The long and short of it, it actually looks pretty good. Of course, the trailer is comprised mainly of quick cuts of action and narration filled with cliched adventure story tropes. Then again, as a video game adaptation, maybe that's to be expected.

Still, there doesn't appear to be anything overtly awful just yet, so the hope is still alive. If Bruckheimer can turn a theme park ride into a successful film franchise, maybe, just maybe, he can do it with a game too.

We were invited out to Jerry Bruckheimer Films earlier this week to watch the trailer for The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The good news? It looks like a Jerry Bruckheimer film. The bad news? Well, It looks like a Jerry Bruckheimer film. He's put together a formula that combines stars -- Jake Gyllenhaal, Alfred Molina, Gemma Arterton and Ben Kingsley -- a lot of bombast and CGI. What usually comes out is a loud, boisterous film that makes a lot of money at the box office. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

The only hitch is that it's a videogame adaptation, and those just never seem to turn out very well. It certainly doesn't help that Ben Kingsley, the one who starred in the ill-fated and ill-conceived film version of BloodRayne, has returned in another villainous role. Still, we have to admit that what we saw (reminder: just a trailer) looks to be an exciting jaunt through swashbuckling adventure.

Read on for the highlights -- and take your time. The movie that doesn't come out until May 2010.

Prince of Persia series creator Jordan Mechner came up with a pretty ingenious way of making sure that the upcoming film adaptation of his beloved action-platforming franchise wouldn't diverge wildly from the source material. After the jump you'll find a trailer which Mechner himself cut together in order to pitch the film to Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney -- a trailer composed exclusively of clips from his well-received game, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

On his personal blog, Mechner pointed out a number of elements sparsely used in the aforementioned trailer: Time travel, sand monsters, clairvoyant visions -- basically any supernatural plot devices which were apparently cut from the pitch he presented to the studio. Without these aspects, we wonder exactly what the film will focus on. Had they been stripped from the game, it would have been approximately four minutes long.

[Via Big Download]

Super sleuth Superannuation has uncovered a new trademark filed by Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner. The game-related application, which seeks to register the title "Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands," may concern a new entry in Ubisoft's storied franchise. Whether it manifests as a sequel to 2008's cel-shaded outing, a spin-off or as a tie-in product to 2010's film adaptation is a matter of speculation. That is, if the name ends up being used at all -- Mechner's last trademark, "Prince of Persia Prodigy," never saw official use.

It would be shame if that were to happen again. We quite like the ring of "The Forgotten Sands," even if the prince's knavish attitude in the last game might better suit a title like "Dude, Where's My Sand?"

Sure, we get it. You're interested in seeing the last chapter of the new Prince of Persia, you're just not quite as interested as some of your buddies. It's hard to put a number on, but let's say you're ... 30 percent less interested.

Well, friend, your moment has arrived: the Prince of Persia Epilogue DLC has bee slashed from 800 ($10) to 560 ($7) as the latest XBLM Deal of the Week. If you've already purchased the content, you may want to ask Elika to rewind time and let you try again, but wouldn't that make it all too easy?

It seems that GDC China attendees have more than just a Video Games Live performance to look forward to, as it was announced today that Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner will be keynoting the event. According to a release issued today, the acclaimed designer will be speaking on "the success of the Prince of Persia series, as well as his own success as a game designer, programmer, and finally, director and screenwriter." You read that right, folks -- the man most recently penned Jerry Bruckheimer's film adaptation of the PoP series, among other screenplays.

Unfortunately, those attending GDC China won't be getting the traditional, mandatory shock treatment at the show, as that has been recently banned. For shame, China! Hopefully Mechner will be enough.

Just when you thought you finally had the Jake Gyllenhaal / Prince of Persia movie collage absolutely perfect, Empire magazine has to go and release shots like the one above. That's right, there he is again. With his shirt open. Sopping wet. Oh, Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) is there too (also wet). There's another one with the Prince on horseback too (again with the stupid Princess).

But let's face it, the Gyllenhaal shrine will have to be re-done. From scratch.

Ubisoft has reported that sales for its fiscal first quarter of 2009-10 (April through June) were down just over 50 percent from the same period a year ago. The publisher posted roughly $118 million (€83 million) in sales last quarter; a far cry from the $240.24 million (€169 million) cash injection from the first quarter of 2008-09. "We are currently experiencing a very sharp slowdown in our sales for Nintendo DS as well as sales of back-catalog titles, in the context of a market that is tougher than anticipated," CEO Yves Guillemot said. During today's conference call, Guillemot repeatedly singled out Prince of Persia and EndWar as the top under-performers of the company's recent back catalog.

Unsurprisingly, Ubisoft has revised its second quarter target ... straight downward. As the next three months rest on the performances of a few shaky releases, including the multiplatform adaptation of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (not a particularly promising forecast, indeed), sales expectations have plummeted 54 percent from $184.9 million (€130 million) to just $113.8 million (€80 million).

While Ubisoft's apparently failing business of selling kids their imaginations (one idea at a time), along with oodles of equally imagined, yet previously irresistible petz, is troubling for its future outlook -- "games of only good quality are not sufficient anymore," Guillemot noted -- the company insists that Wii sales of, let's call them, not-so-good-quality titles are increasing and expected to compensate for the losses in the DS market soon enough.

Posted after the jump are two completely surprising pieces of advertising imagery -- movie posters for the Bruckheimer/Gyllenhaal joint, Prince of Persia. Why "surprising?" Because they look completely and utterly fantastic. Yeah, we know. We were just as surprised as you.

Don't get it twisted -- the movie won't be good. It can't be good. However, its advertising looks very professional, its font choice is delightfully non-cheesy, and its Prince looks very Princely. That's an achievement in and of itself. Check out both posters after the jump.

[Via Kotaku]