Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is proof that Ubisoft should do more unique games

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown launched on Xbox to an incredibly warm welcome earlier this month, and we'd like to see that replicated with other unique games — and the return of Rayman.

Opinion by Tom West

Published 26 Jan 2024

Ubisoft has become synonymous with sprawling open worlds in recent years, making it easy to forget that the publisher has a strong history of creating games in many other genres, such as platforming. With the recent launch of the Metroidvania Prince of Persia spin-off — which I was a big fan of in my Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review — which dropped on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and other platforms earlier this month, Ubisoft's ability to build great experiences in a condensed package has been thrust into the spotlight. We'd like to see more spin-offs and unique titles from the company in the future.

Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, The Division, The Crew, Rainbow Six — these are franchises almost everyone and their dog have heard of at this point, and focus on the open-world, shooting, and racing genres. Of course, we do get plenty of titles outside of those genres for Ubisoft's other niche franchises like Just Dance and The Settlers, but it feels like any recent attempts to try something "new" have been focused on live service models for pushing microtransactions.

Just looking at the publisher's currently announced line-up, the next few years will give us The Division 3, Star Wars Outlaws — check out everything we know about Star Wars Outlaws — Assassin's Creed Codename Hex, and Assassin's Creed Red; all of which fall into the open-world category. Mixed in with those are the free-to-play titles, XDefiant and The Division Heartland, ultra-niche Rocksmith+, and a remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The only two games on the slate that seem to shake things up and have the potential to appeal to a wide audience are Beyond Good and Evil 2 and Skull and Bones — both of which have had horrendous development cycles, leaving us with little faith in them.

Ubisoft recently thanked players for the "warm welcome" Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has received since it launched, saying that it "couldn't be happier that our action-platformer twist on the franchise has been embraced by the players." I hope that this will drive Ubisoft to develop new unique experiences in the future, breaking up the genre status quo and filling the publisher's upcoming line-up with fresh experiences.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 seems like it has been in development forever, and its developer, Ubisoft Montpellier, hasn't released a new game other than Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown since 2015. Montpellier has a small but punchy catalog of games, which includes Rayman Legends, Rayman Origins, and Valiant Hearts: The Great War — all highly regarded titles. Players have been screaming for another Rayman for many years and each year continues to pass without word of a revival. The last Rayman title we got was Legends on the Xbox 360, but with The Lost Crown now out and proving the studio's talent with platformers is stronger than ever, now would be a great time to bring Rayman back to life.

Breaking the cycle isn't down to Ubisoft Montpellier just because it's crafted some extraordinary titles over the years, however. In years past, Climax Studios mixed up the Assassin's Creed formula with the side-scrolling Chronicles trilogy, and while the games weren't major successes, they were great additions to the franchise and full of potential. Ubisoft Montreal's fantastic turn-based Child of Light is also another example of what can be achieved when Ubisoft takes a step into the unknown. Hell, while Zombi won't go down as a great survival horror game, it was a decent enough attempt and yet another step into the unknown that I think deserved another shot.

I love to get lost in big open worlds, shoot things with guns, and trek tirelessly for yet another quest for an NPC too lazy to do things for themselves, so I find a lot of joy in Ubisoft's main franchises — I'm sure many of you have heard me talk fondly of Far Cry on numerous occasions. With that said, I've also been gaming long enough to remember a time when Ubisoft was hammering out games from a plethora of first- and third-party studios across all kinds of genres. I'd love Ubisoft to revive its experimental side.

Would you like to see Ubisoft roll out more unique games, or craving the return of the beloved Rayman? Let me know down in the comments!

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Written by Tom West

Tom has been playing video games since he was old enough to hold a controller, experimenting with a number of systems until he eventually fell in love with Xbox. With a passion for the platform, he decided to make a career out of it, and now happily spends his days writing about that which he loves. If he’s not hunting for Xbox achievements, you’ll likely find him somewhere in The Elder Scrolls Online or fighting for survival in Battlefield.