New Prince of Persia game

I do wonder if game pass and other subscription based services are having a detrimental effect on the industry. People are happy to sit and wait for it to pop up "free" at some point.

I know quite a few folk who barely or never buy full price games which I find a bit odd to be honest. Most hobbies need some sort of investment of cash.

Nintendo seal of quality.

Ubisoft seal of.. piss.

... And Ubisoft's portfolio gets even more generic.

They cancelled the sequel to Immortals Fenyx Rising - another of their recent games that was actually well regarded - a while back, but that was a new IP. Given PoP's pedigree, I'm kind of shocked that they didn't give The Lost Crown 2 a shot.

Haven't been anywhere near this because it's Ubisoft. It is good that they made something a bit different for a AAA, but the industry is not hurting for Metroidvanias. Metroidvania has become the open world of 2D action games so kind of funny that Ubisoft would make one as their idea of left field

Price wise, I don't mind the mid price of around £30-£40 for something with higher production values - I bought Dread at release - even though you can get much cheaper indie 2D stuff that's amazing. But it's Ubisoft and they're the worst. Hollow Knight being £10 is incredible value and all respect to them for that but it doesn't set any kind of bar for me in terms of a price point

All comes down to whether what I'm seeing looks like it's worth the asking price. Ask for as much as you want but make sure it matches up with what you're offering

I sometimes think HK is doing other metroidvanias--or 2D games in general--a disservice by giving people the impression that this is the sort of value you can expect for 12 quid.

I would happily pay considerably more too for a 2D game that I really want, and there are clearly others who do too, see Dread and Bloodstained. But I think a publisher can only do that if their game has enormous pull, like Nintendo making Metroid 5 or Igarashi making the spiritual successor to Symphony of the Night. PoP though...? It just wasn't going to work imo.

Well if a game is deemed worthy of big investment into its visuals, surely it has to be a high quality product

It's a shame it didn't sell well. Ubisoft do occasionally try these more experimental games, but unfortunately it rarely seems to pay off for them.

I can only speak personally, but as a huge PoP fan I didn't buy this because it didn't really appeal at all, despite everyone here saying how great it was.
I read a few reviews and watched a few gameplay videos and it's not really my kind of game, or at least not the kind of game I get excited about. I might pick it up and give it a try if it's dirt cheap someday.
So I wonder if they misjudged the franchise fanbase, who maybe weren't looking for a 2d combat-focused metroidvania.

Tbh, I'm not sure how big the PoP games are. They're certainly beloved, and have a core fanbase, but I don't know how much they sold.
The very old 2d ones are so old now it probably doesn't matter.
Sands of Time clearly sold enough to get 2 sequels, but even from #2 they were messing with the branding dramatically to try and expand the audience, which implies it didn't sell as much as they'd hoped.
Then the cel-shaded re-boot didn't sell enough to get a sequel.

I played through the gamecube version Sands of Time again this year and loved it, and I was excited about the remaster, so if they failed to get me interested in this game despite all the positive reviews and word of mouth then I think they misjudged something.

But maybe that's just me. Metroid Prime is another of my all time favorite games, and Dread doesn't look remotely interesting... but then I never really got into the OG 2d metroid games that much.

It always sucks when Ubi tries something interesting, it doesn't work, and they retreat to Assassin's Open World #437 though.

I'd also have been happy with a new Sands of Time type game, or even a new cel-shaded-Pop (what do we call that game?) game. But for me, PoP these days is about wall running around large 3d environments and rewinding time.
I'd like a new game where I can do that, though I'd accept a remaster.

I also really like several of the characters from SoT and cel-PoP, but afaik this metroidvania game has none of those returning. So if the characters are different, the vibe is different, and the gameplay is different, it's not really a PoP game for me.

Maybe others felt the same way, or maybe it's only me. *shrug*

*I realise this is a bit ironic with the PoP franchise, given it started out as a 2d side-scroller, and that the characters from SoT and cel-PoP are basically new. But while I played and enjoyed the old 2d games, it was with SoT that my love of the franchise began.

@bill - Don't people just call it PoP 2008?

The price is a weird one. I happily paid full whack for Dread and it felt more than fair, but just feel like there have been countless Metroidvanias since then and a combat focussed one just didn't appeal enough to skip over the others already on my backlog.
I've wish listed this at £20 on deku deals, but even then I'd still hesitate.

It used to be my favourite kind of game, but fatigue has definitely set in now.

These are all really good points. The main on being that the brand doesn't really have the same pull as it did with the Sands of Time trilogy and yeah the 2008 reboot flopped hard and they moved away from it after that. Although I do remember there was a more realistic reboot in development at one point but got canned and incorporated into what was AC Origins.

I also think that when you take a well known full-3d game and make a 2d version of it, at a lower price point, you're effectively signaling "This isn't a mainline game in the series, it's a side thing and so probably ok to skip".

Like those side-scrolling Assassin's Creed games.

I really liked the 2008 one as well, with this they're the only PoP games I've played apart from the classic original. Guess I don't have much of an eye for them.
It's a bit of an odd series in that there doesn't seem to be much linking the different games, even the Prince is a different character in them, I suppose that doesn't lend itself to series loyalty much.

What happened to that Rogue-like one they announced around the same time? I imagine that team is feeling nervous now assuming they still exist.

I think the sequel was really good and sold really well. They final game in the trilogy kinda shat the bed though.

Ha, they were proper 2000s emo edgy, weren't they?