Euphoria didn't last long. „New” footprint of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake turned out to be a painful return to the past

Players eagerly waiting for the remake of the classic Sands of Time had a moment of excitement... until they realized what the "new" post from the American rating organization was actually about.

GTA 6 might be THE game the entire industry is waiting for, but Ubisoft seems to be testing players' patience even more. The French publisher is reportedly still working not only on Beyond Good & Evil 2 (for the record: the game has been in development for several years, officially resurfaced in 2017, and then disappeared again a few years later) but also on the refresh of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

Neither of these titles has a release date yet, but at least PoP is unofficially expected to be released this month. It seems unlikely unless Ubisoft follows Bethesda's lead, but at least we have a hint that the game is on track for release. Or so the players thought.

Hope and bizarre platforms…

As noted by Insider Gaming, the rating organization ESRB added an entry for Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake to its database. This could mean that the work on the project has been completed and the creators are merely polishing the game before its release.

What is perhaps most interesting is that, according to the description, Sands of Time is set to return not only on Xbox Series X/S but also on PS4 and XOne, while skipping PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2. The release of the game on eighth-generation consoles is surprising—after all, even current platforms are over five years old—but skipping Sony's newer device in favor of the older PlayStation seems like a bizarre decision. So much so that it raises the suspicion that it might just be a mistake.

In theory, the lack of a version for Switch 2 would be more understandable. However, Ubisoft is known for its collaboration with Nintendo, which has resulted in exclusive content and even exclusive games. Skipping the first Switch can be explained by the console's weaker power, but not having a version for a much newer platform is pretty puzzling.

… from an outdated ESRB entry

Unfortunately for fans of Prince of Persia, the matter was clarified very quickly. It turns out this is an old entry for the remake—specifically, the version that Ubisoft restarted production on, effectively canceling the original project after changing the developer (to which another team was added). As noticed by internet users, if you change the number in the URL address of the entry by one or several digits, the page displays titles such as Doom Eternal: Ancient God, Part One and Amnesia Rebirth. These are games that hit the market around 2020. PoP: SoT Remake was originally supposed to be released on January 21, 2021, before Ubisoft delayed the game's launch a month before the deadline.

This would explain the strange omissions in the target hardware platforms. On the other hand, the inclusion of XSX/S makes sense since they did the same thing with other games from that era, like Digimon: Survive. Some people also claim that Ubisoft has completely abandoned the word "remake" in the title, but this is not certain (although in the financial report from the middle of last year, the word was indeed written in lowercase, as if it was no longer part of the name).

In other words, the ESRB entry doesn't prove that we are facing an unannounced and imminent release of the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake. Of course, this is still possible (as indicated by recent leaks), but it's better not to count on it. We are waiting for official information from Ubisoft.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake

Q1 2026

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