The French publisher was rightly criticized by Larian’s publishing director Michael Douse for a successful but doomed title.

We recently reported that Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown did not sell very well despite its excellent critical results, so Ubisoft has disbanded the team and we should not expect a sequel.In the wake of this, Douse took to Twitter to say that Ubisoft simply doesn’t have a strategy that works, and was quite critical of the company led by Yves Guillemot:”The last game of note on their platform was arguably Far Cry 6 in 2021.The Crew Motorfest, Assassin’s Creed: Mirage and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora came in 2023 and didn’t perform, so you can assume that subscriptions were at a lull when Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown came out in 2024.Which means that people wouldn’t be launching their store all that much.If it had come out on Steam, not only would it have been a market success, but there would probably be a sequel because the team is so strong. It’s such a broken strategy.The hardest thing is to make an 85+ game – it is much, much easier to release one.It just shouldn’t be done the way it was done.

If the statement “gamers should get used to not owning their games” is true because of a certain release strategy (sub over sales), then the statement “developers should get used to not having a job if they make a critically acclaimed game” (platform strategy over title sales) is also true, and that just doesn’t make sense – even from a business perspective. It can’t resonate with an audience it can’t reach because it’s not on a platform at the right time.For premium games, Steam on PC is about 90%+ of your total sales on that platform, probably slightly less if you have your own platform. If you remove the Steam platform at the peak of its relevance, you’re removing, on average, 90% of your potential audience.Quite significant,” Douse wrote.

The last notable game on their platform was arguably Far Cry 6 in 2021. The Crew, Mirage and Avatar came in 2023 and didn’t perform, so you can assume subscriptions were at a lull when PoP released by 2024. Which means people wouldn’t be launching their store all too much.

If it… https://t.co/uiC167uxGG

— Very AFK (@Cromwelp) October 23, 2024

For premium games Steam on PC is about 90%+ of your total sales on that platform probably slightly lower if you own your own platform. If you remove the Steam platform at peak of relevance you’re removing 90% average of your potential audience. Quite substantial.

— Very AFK (@Cromwelp) October 23, 2024

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown finally hit Steam… on August 8th, seven months after its release. But by then, the ship had already sailed. Until then, Ubisoft had stuck to the Ubisoft Store and the Epic Games Store, but since then their games have started to find their way back to Steam…

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