Prince of Persia Lost Crown sold 1.3 million units

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/01/prince-of-persia-the-lost-crowns-reported-1-3-million-sales-not-enough-for-ubisoft

About this time last year, Ubisoft released Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, a fantastic side-scrolling Metroidvania — but it sadly failed to live up to the publisher's expectations.

Despite great reviews, the game didn't deliver in terms of sales, leading to the team being dispersed to other Ubisoft projects.

Recently, it seemingly came to light just how many copies the game shifted, thanks to a Ubisoft employee's LinkedIn account (which mysteriously no longer exists).

As spotted by X user Timur222, the profile, belonging to an Associate Marketing Director, stated The Lost Crown sold over 1.3 million units in its first year.

This seems like a fairly respectable figure, but obviously, it wasn't enough to meet the publisher's internal targets.

Ubisoft has been through the wringer over the last year or two with several tepid game launches and other issues, including the short-livedXDefiant and Star Wars Outlaws, which should've been a slam dunk but also failed to sell.

damn.. sucks to see games like this not meet sales expectations. Thoughts, SW? Will we ever see another Prince of Persia game?

Never played, so can't comment on the quality. Honestly thought it looked decent, so might pick up on sale down the road.

It only sold a lot. Not a shitload. So we can't do more of that.

Game is good, I recommend.

@Litchie: Right? Jesus Christ Ubisoft.

Unfortunately, originality is dying. To know that a game as good as this failed to meet expectations is very depressing. Everything nowadays is a shooter or an open world game.

I bought, but i haven't played it, it got discounted really fast, got it like for $20, guess their sales projection were really high.

Didn’t get it myself. The Prince of Persia games just really aren’t my thing.

Ubisoft will still die.

You've got to remember all publishers are greedy mofos, so in this day & age just about every game is a failure to these kind of people.

I mean I heard good things about it but I'm not really sure why Ubisoft or anyone else expected big sales.

Also, is 1.3 million bad? Seems like a lot. Surely a decent profit, yes?

Maybe, but it will be a zombie corp still, bought by some venture capitalist or investment firm or something like that.

So, surprisingly, likely worse.

That's a lot more than I figured it would in all honesty.. a franchise that's never clicked with me personally. Well... I guess one of the games I played wasn't too bad..

I enjoyed this game. It not meeting expectations was expected because gamers prefer remakes.😏

I've been meaning to buy this. Thanks for the reminder!

Read it's a fairly decent MetroidVania game, personally took a pause from those games because played too many within a short period.

I think it should've launched for a lower price.

That seems really good. But sales expectations are so high that even a title like this is unsustainable. Shame

Time the industry works out how to make games cheaper.

If 1.3m sale isnt profitable then they need to reduce costs

I wonder what the expectations were? 1.3 million units for a side scrolling metroidvania using a not very big, and quite neglected, IP seems pretty good. Not every game is going to sell in the 10s of millions and that's ok. It doesn't mean it wasn't worth making.

If the game ended up making a loss then something went terribly wrong during development. A game like that should be able to make some money off of 1.3 million sales.

I haven't played the game myself but I hear it's very good.

Edit: Just checked. 40 quid for the game. 50 for the whole package. That's a high price in a tough part of the market. It may yet have legs at discounted prices though.

It is good. But those in charge of the company cares only about numbers not being more good. Of course a 2D game in a series people have forgot about wouldn't sell 20 million, but people in charge don't think like that.

It most likely made them a profit.

It is. I've only played it for 10 hours so far, but can already easily recommend it. The gameplay is better than most metroidvanias, it's a pretty long game, it's more challenging than these games usually are, lots of moves and game mechanics to play with. It's really nice. Story so far sucks butt, but who cares when you have fun.

It's an Ubisoft problem.

This is a great display of the public perception and trust being damaged in the company, and even good games suffer now because of it.

...And this is why Ubisoft instead pumps out a new Assassin's Creed every year.

But for real, 1.3M sales is profitable for a 2D game. It's not like AAA games which need multi-million sales just to break even. For a 2D game, even 500K sales is enough to make a profit.

Accurate.

I guess also demonstrates that the public (people) are dumb when it comes to games.

That's not that much and most of those sales came after a quick price drop.

Do you know it was profitable?

You're saying people are dumb over their right to choose which games to buy?

Very interesting take, Pedro; nonetheless, that does not fix the Ubisoft problem.

Nope! However, I think you should read my comment in conjunction to yours. 🙃

1.3 million units X $49.99 = $65 million

That's roughly how much gross revenue it generated... I highly doubt the budget, especially for a 2D game, is even a fraction of that amount.

Ubisoft being disappointed is basically like Square Enix being disappointed. A game under-performing doesn't mean it wasn't profitable. It simply means the profit is less than what they projected.

Instead of being your usual snarky self, I recommend you engage in proper discussion and elaborate, especially if you sense I did not (and most likely did not) understand your vague conjunction.

You otherwise lose people when you talk like that, Pedro.

I answered your question and suggested that you read my comment in conjunction to yours for clarity. If you wanted clarification, you could have simply asked. Instead you made an incorrect assumption and viewed my response to your comment as snarky. Now we are having this conversation because you chose to escalate.🤷🏾‍♀️

@Pedro: Snarky it is.

Well I tried.

There won't be an escalation other than what you imagine in your head. Lol

You delivered.🙃

They only get 70% of that though plus marketing cost. Not to mention the game was discounted one month after release so not all copies sold for that price.

To translate what Pedro is saying. You said this is Ubisoft's issue. That their public image is so bad that gamers are skipping out on their great games, because gamers have a bad perception. Pedro is saying that it shows how dumb gamers are, because they let public perception keep them from a good game that they would enjoy.

🫡

Thank you for elaborating for him. It's really not that hard to do that, Pedro.

I feel the exact same way about the Mario + Rabbids games, also Ubisoft. Such great games yet criminally unplayed.

I find it unsavory, however, to call people dumb for their rights to choose what games they wish to play. I could best encourage people to check out the Mario + Rabbids games, but calling them dumb does not cross my mind if they chose to pass on them for Ubisoft reasons.

At the end of the day, there are so many video games out there, including great ones even the most dedicated gamers will never play. Let people choose what they want to play without having to patronize them.

Just seems odd when it does not remedy the Ubisoft situation I originally brought into frame.

Isn't Ubisoft dumber for creating the situtation in the first place?

Since they are supposidly the smart ones.

Yes!

And no.

The quality is still okay if not making an open world game

The price drop was $30. Assuming half the sales were from the price drop:

1.3M units X $40 = $50M gross

And assuming they get a 70% cut:

$50M gross X 0.70 = $35M net

Even with marketing costs, I highly doubt the budget was higher than $10M. It's a 2D game, not a 3D AAA game.

Not to be a stickler but the game is not 2D. The gameplay is limited to 2D but the actual game is 3D.

One of the best games released last year