Popping up in the news fairly recently due to a number of suspicious leaks and rumors, it seems interest in a potential Prince of Persia reboot is stronger than ever, with Ubisoft's now-dead franchise slowly beginning to show signs of life. An alleged remake of The Sands of Time was leaked recently, with two major industry insiders having intriguingly conflicting things to say about its legitimacy, while a recent domain was registered indicating a Prince of Persia 6 was in development.
However, it seems plans were in place to return to the series not all that long ago, with test footage hitting YouTube in 2012 that's only recently been discovered that showcases a canceled reboot of the series titled Prince of Persia: Redemption. Leaked on a channel titled Nayam Amarshe, the footage has since been confirmed as authentic by video game animator Jonathon Cooper, who went on to talk in-depth about the now-canceled Ubisoft project.
The video itself shows off a vastly different looking version of the titular Prince, who no longer sports the long hair he did in the original Prince of Persia games. The gameplay shown appears to place the iconic protagonist in a slowly crumbling city amidst a harrowing supernatural siege, with the Prince having to use his time-altering powers to navigate across precarious architecture and weave through streets filled with warring soldiers. These powers include the staple ability to rewind time and another that sees the Prince teleport when about to miss a jump.
Eventually, the footage also shows off some combat, with the prince fighting a series of demonic soldiers including a huge behemoth with a hammer. Here he uses his powers to cheat death by rewinding time and even appears to use the abilities on his enemies. The clip ends with the prince mounting a giant tentacled monster that's holding a large landmass on his back, leaping into the air before plunging his sword into the colossal beast's head.
Speaking about the canceled game on Twitter, video game animator Jonathon Cooper claimed "Amazing work from animation director Khai Nguyen (For Honor) and team. This target game footage (pre-rendered game pitch) inspired our own pitch for Assassin's Creed 3 as they did such a great job making it look like real gameplay." Interestingly, he continued to explain why Ubisoft cancels so many Prince of Persia projects, claiming "Jordan Mechner still holds license rights [to the series] so the profit margins are lower." Regardless, Redemption looks like it would've been an astounding new entry in the Prince of Persia series, so it's a shame that fans will never get to properly experience it.