“It’s a brutal experience.” The creator of Prince of Persia reacted to the cancellation of the Sands of Time remake by talking about the side that “is not usually seen”. Jordan Mechner laments that the years of work poured in by the developers at Ubisoft Montreal have effectively been erased.

One of the bleakest headlines of 2026 is that Ubisoft, pursuing a “total reboot” playbook of cancellations, delays, layoffs, and budget cuts, has decided to shut down development of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake. The move caught many people off guard – employees, voice actors, and even Jordan Mechner himself, the creator of the franchise. Only a few weeks earlier, Mechner had reassured fans that the project was still alive by posting an enigmatic poem. Now he has publicly addressed the remake’s demise with a statement that puts the spotlight on the harm these decisions inflict on the people building the game.

Mechner maintains a personal blog where he writes about his work across video games, film, novels, and comics, and where he also weighs in on developments such as Ubisoft‘s restructuring. It is there that he published a post about something our industry rarely discusses in plain terms: what a cancellation does to developers. “I was hoping my first post of the New Year would be a celebration of the release of the Sands of Time remake, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.”

“The cancellation of the remake, as part of Ubisoft‘s restructuring, was disappointing news for all the fans who were looking forward to it, myself included,” he continues. “I sympathize with the development team in Montreal; I can imagine how they must feel.” “Having a project canceled is a brutal experience.” “It’s an aspect of the video game industry that the public doesn’t usually see, but one that developers are very familiar with.”

On that point, Mechner argues that when a cancellation happens close to release – as he says was the case with the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake – it “can be particularly devastating for the younger members of a team” because they have less experience to fall back on. “It’s hard to accept that, suddenly, the last four years of hard work you were so proud of, and which you hoped to see in the world as your new calling card, will now never see the light of day,” he writes. “The memories of nights and weekends spent crunching in the studio instead of being at home with loved ones – sacrifices that were worth it at the time – only intensify the pain in retrospect once their purpose has ceased to exist.”

The cancellation of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake has been a major blow to more than one professional

That perspective echoes what voice actress Eman Ayaz shared in a YouTube video, where she mourned the sudden cancellation of a project she says would have changed her life. Because of confidentiality agreements, she never names the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, but several hints point toward her involvement in the Ubisoft production. Her account is hard to hear, as she says she turned down multiple roles for years in order to focus on a game that will ultimately never be released. For that reason, Ayaz describes Ubisoft‘s decision as “the most devastating moment of my career.”

Source: 3djuegos