Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown's Reported 1.3 Million Sales Not Enough for Ubisoft

Ubisoft needed it to bail out their entire company and pay for all those lawsuits. There's no way it was ever going to do that. No game could.

Ironic since it was the best game they released in quite a while

Personally, if I was a gaming CEO I'd want my game to sell at least twenty million copies.

Great game... that I borrowed and beat through the library. But honestly, I've planned on adding it my shelf at some point.

I'd agree that 1.3m copies for a sidescrolling Metroidvania game seems decent to me. But a quick Google search says that Metroid Dread has sold more than 3m, as of a couple years ago...

I bought it to support them, but then never got around to it. It'll be one I tackle this year after I finish Silent Hill 2 and NG2 Black.

This (and Metroid dread) should have costed the same prices as Ori and Hollow Knight at launch.

@Smackosynthesis for sure. But maybe it was too wo… Never mind…

@twitchy_emu92 I wish I had your optimism, there are just way too many factors to guarantee 20M sales.

I think they had unfair and unrealistic expectations. I think it's a pretty good game and really enjoyed the hours I spent playing it.

I enjoyed the demo but ubisoft games are subscription fodder. I'll carry on slaying the backlog until it inevitably turns up on ps+.

Brilliant game and I’m thankful it exists.

Seems good numbers for a metroidvania in a series that hadn't seen much attention in recent years. I picked it up for the switch as I felt it would benefit from portability and have really enjoyed what I have played so far

@RudeAnimat0r it had a budget of around 100 million it needed quite a bit more sales to break even and fund another game

Why didn’t you support the game push square commenters?

It's the best Ubisoft game since Rayman Legends. Super disappointing to hear that there will likely not be a sequel in development.

I bought it but haven’t played it yet, I think I might have preordered it also. My backlog is way out of control.

This was the only Ubisoft game, that I had bought, in MANY years.
Way more fun, than their open world crap.
Wish we had gotten a new Rayman game as well...

1.3m just isn’t enough when most of the copies are sold for dirt low prices, just a couple of weeks after release.

100% the racist backlash was a factor. Which evaporated when positive impressions came out but the damage was done.

SWO failed because we are tired of playing as a chick boss

This can't have been that costly a game to make, I wonder what the margins were really like? 1.3 mill doesn't sound that bad to me for a smaller title...

I loved it tbh, thought it was super fun and high quality... I was kind of optimistic thinking Ubi might start investing in a mix of AAA and A titles but yeah, not happening.

For a low budget AA game, 1.3M copies should be more than enough. This is a pad the calendar between the BIG releases game, it did everything it needed to do: be a hit with the press, sell a respectable amount & build up goodwill with the audience.

It's the Astro Bot of Ubisoft's 2024 portfolio, this didn't even sell a lot less than AB (1.5M according to Wikipedia) & Sony has been parading that as a resounding success.

If 1.3 Mill sold isn't good. Yeah the gaming industry is in trouble

The best game of its sort (e.g., metroidvania etc.) that I’ve played in a long while.

It's never just about what the game sold, but also how much it cost to produce. You can bet Ubisoft had a lot more people on the project than Hollowknight did

Wish they made a sequel to PoP 2008 instead. Or at least remaster it for PS5. Loved that game.

@nessisonett What was the controversy surrounding this one at launch? I can’t remember or recall anything. I do remember the assassins creed shadows controversy but that’s been much more recent. On a side note I did like the demo for POP but never felt the desire to pick it up.

@jgrangervikings1 I mean it went on sale for $30 within two months of release, which is when I picked it up.

@Shad361 I bought it, played it, and loved it! And I don’t give a damn about who’s in charge of Sony, Ubi, etc. Nor do I care about live service, single player, or subscription based. I just play damn video games. When you get caught up in all that backstage BS you ruin your favorite hobby for yourself.

@LordFunkalot the usual anti-woke people. It was pretty intense and no-doubt influenced many who were on the fence.

In my opinion, if Ubisoft had dedicated their efforts to a full, polished remake of the Sands of Time saga instead of the underwhelming version they previewed back in 2020, it likely would have sold far more than the 1.3 million units it managed. I’ll admit, I own the game—it was actually a gift—but even though I completed it, I was left feeling rather unimpressed. I’m not questioning the talent of Ubisoft’s creative team, as the game does look great, but I can’t help but feel that the decisions made by the higher-ups—especially the mindset of "Gamers don’t know what they want"—comes off as incredibly arrogant. But, anyway, I digress…in the end, it’s disappointing to see such an iconic franchise fall short of its potential. With the right direction and respect for what made Sands of Time so beloved, it could have been a standout in today’s market. Hopefully, Ubisoft learns from this and gives fans what they truly want in the future.

If only they made a Prince of Persia game that had an actual Persian as the protagonist and an Assassins Creed set in Japan with an actual Japanese male protagonist.
I hope they learned from their mistakes

@ashipaw Shadows will sell. And Nioh had a European protagonist, did you care about that?

While it's unfortunate but PoP games rarely sold a ton. Outside the Sands of Time trilogy that sold around 17-18 million copies combine all 3 games, i only remember PoP 2008 that sold 2.5 million copies and it took a year to reach that numbers with Ubisoft claim it's a flop.

PoP series always on and off for Ubisoft since they put most of their resource for AssCreed which is a guaranteed money maker.

@Ometa you clowns will get 100 games. Play 97 games in a row as a white guy, then get 3 in a row as any real life minority (because you’ll happily play as a space alien), and cry about how your sick of playing as said minority and whine about how the they’re shoving it down your throat. Then

@ashipaw Resident Evil 5 was in West Africa and the main was a white guy. Not too much lamentation about that. Then again, many are cool with being a white guy. We’ve been playing as one our whole gaming lives. It’s you lot who can’t be anything else because you see yourselves as the default. Any iteration of something else (other than a space alien, of course) you see it as a conscious decision to erase you all. Every time!

I bought it physical and loved it. Really good game

It was a day one for me (on the Switch, though). And the first game from Ubi I bought that way.

1.3 million sold is good but Ubisoft need to realise prince of persia isn't that big of a selling point anymore, not like it was. It's gonna be the same with the rumoured splinter cell remake, if that gets released it'll be lucky if it sells 1.3 million because you gotta keep the names and make more games of them to sell high numbers, not abandon them then years later announce a new game in the series that most people forgot.

I loved the game but yeah those numbers are not good.

My reasoning:
POP at full price sold 300k units last time info was leaked
Now it is at 1.3 million sales for a game that is almost always 50% off. That's one million units at half the cost.
Now look at the runtime of the end credits, at least 200 people are mentioned in there and it goes on for 20 mins. 200 people for a metroidvania is crazy. It was an expensive game.

So doing some basic math (not including deluxe editions or additional physical version manufacturing costs): (300,000x50)+(1,000,000*35)= 50,000,000
50,000,000-15,000,000 (steam, ninty, sony, xbox 30%)= 35,000,000

not a success.

Sad that a great game like this can only move a million copies. Metroidvania just too niche a genre I guess. Strange, because it feels like the genre is one of the pillars of gaming. Not enough gamers that like real video game ass games.

@naruball Thanks I don’t remember any of that with this one, but then it’s so common nowadays that someone says something is woke I probably just ignored it lol

@Drago201 Really? I bought it on sale a month or so after release and really enjoyed it but 100 mill!? Nah, there is no way on earth it cost that surely?