Prince of Persia sequel planned

Ubisoft chairman Yves Guillemot has confirmed that the French publisher is planning a sequel to Ubisoft Montreal's phenomenal Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, describing the original game as "a resounding success for our group." The game sold more than two million units worldwide, and met with universal acclaim, although it did rely on discounting to make its point in some areas.

"A sequel to this hit is already being planned with an improved marketing positioning," Guillemot confirmed. Ubisoft offered no further details, but the original was developed for PC, PS2, Xbox and GameCube, with a matching Game Boy Advance version released at the same time.

However unfortunately for other fans of Ubisoft's Christmas output, sequels to Beyond Good & Evil and XIII look less likely to materialise. BG&E, which was heralded by all who played it here as the finest storytelling adventure of 2003 and reminded us all why Ubisoft places so much importance on Michel Ancel's titles, failed to meet sales forecasts along with XIII, which, coupled with a delay to Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, had a significant impact on Ubisoft's financials.

"In a very competitive year-end market, sales of new brands such as Beyond Good & Evil and XIII, products which had been heavily marketed, were lower than the early-December forecasts," the company's earnings report stated. "This had an impact of 10 million euros." Ouch. Yves Guillemot appeared humbled. "We have learned from the launches of Beyond Good & Evil and XIII, two new brands launched in a very competitive market dominated by established brands." Let's hope their relative lack of success doesn't discourage the publisher's pursuit of groundbreaking high quality games.