With Jake Gyllenhaal bringing Jordan Mechner’s heroic, wall-running, Prince to life on the big screen in Walt Disney Pictures’ Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Ubisoft has made sure that gamers have something new to play with at home. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is the fourth installment in Ubisoft’s The Sands of Time game franchise. And according to Graeme Jennings, producer of the new game at Ubisoft, it may not be the last. In addition to Gyllenhaal being on board for a potential big screen sequel, Ubisoft has more games up its sleeves. Jennings talks about the new movie and the new game in this exclusive interview.
It’s worth noting that because Mechner owns the rights to the game franchise, he partnered with Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer on the movie – Mechner even wrote the first draft of the script. And because Ubisoft has an exclusive on the video game rights – Mechner continues to work with the game publisher and contributed to this new title – Disney Interactive Studios was not allowed to make a game based on the movie, based on the game (a la Capcom’s Street Fighter: The Movie game back in 1994.) So while there was no convergence between the film and game besides Mechner, both franchises can feed off one another.
IndustryGamers: What are your thoughts on the fact that Jordan Mechner, the game's creator, wrote the big screen movie Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time?
Graeme Jennings: Jordan Mechner created the vision behind Prince of Persia and Ubisoft reinvented this universe with Sands of Time in 2003. The fact that Jordan wrote the big screen adaptation I think provides a lot of credibility to the movie. Since he was the creator, having him involved ensures that the source material is as close as possible to the movie adaptation.
IG: What impact would a successful movie have on this game franchise moving forward, given that you now have four games for Hollywood to work from but would need something new to tie into a future film?
GJ: The way we see it, since Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is not a game based on this film, the Sands of Time movie could essentially introduce a whole new legion of fans to the video game series. Since Prince of Persia already has quite the library of games created in the past, and now Forgotten Sands, fans of the movie that have never enjoyed the games it was based on can go back and play the entire Sands of Time series. Of course, with the success of this film comes a larger fan base and more exposure to the Prince of Persia brand. However, we’re in the industry of making great games, whether the film is successful or not will not negatively affect our ability to make Prince of Persia video games.
IG: Was there any type of convergence between The Forgotten Sands and Mechner and the new movie?
GJ: The Forgotten Sands is a standalone adventure. The film is based on Jordan Mechner’s original idea and The Sands of Time universe realized by Ubisoft in 2003. While we at Ubisoft eagerly await the film to come out and are very excited about it, there was no convergence between the game and the movie.
IG: Did you design Forgotten Sands any differently to appeal to the more casual film fan?
GJ: The Forgotten Sands was actually in development for over two years (concurrently with the 2008 Prince of Persia) so development of this title was not influenced by the film at all. While we tried to make this game accessible to all types of gamers, it is at its core, a gamer’s game.
IG: What will veterans of the game franchise find new in this game?
GJ: Veterans of the franchise I think will welcome The Forgotten Sands as it does take a lot from the original trilogy. As we went back to the roots, fans of the older titles will be reminiscent of the classic Prince of Persia feel from rewinding to wall running and acrobatics. That’s not to say newcomers to the series would not enjoy Forgotten Sands; those that have never played a previous title can still enjoy this adventure as it has a standalone storyline and learning curve that ramps up the difficulty as you play.
IG: Will the gameplay experience be the same across all platforms?
GJ: Actually no! While the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC versions share the same experience; the Wii, PSP, and DS versions of Forgotten Sands are each completely different! They will each have their own adventure, unique environments, and all new powers. The only aspect all these versions share are that they all have the same prince and take place at different points within the seven year gap between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within.
IG: With the last Prince of Persia reboot, is that another direction you'll continue to take with that new Prince? Do you still see this franchise as supporting multiple stories like 1,001 Arabian Nights?
GJ: We always planned to return to the Sands of Time Trilogy. In fact we started development on The Forgotten Sands about two years ago while the 2008 version of Prince of Persia was still in production. This does not mean we cannot have other stories under the Prince of Persia name like we did in 2008. The great thing about 1,001 Arabian Nights is the ability to tell different stories about different people.
IG: Thanks Graeme
