"Potential" for POP spin-offs

She may be making her gaming debut as a supporting character in the new Prince of Persia, but the game's producer has revealed that the back-story and game universe are deep enough that Elika could ultimately become the star of her own game.

Talking up the narrative scope of Ubisoft Montreal's "second reinvention" of the classic Jordan Mechner-created action-adventure, Ben Mattes revealed to us how the team has prepared the fiction to pave the way for future titles.

"We wanted to create a universe like Lord of the Rings, [where] everything has a back story, a purpose, a raison d'etre," he explained. "Any one of those things, theoretically, any of the bosses, regions, have the potential to spin off into something."

Asked whether an Elika-led game had been considered, he added: "Princess of Persia? Sure, why not, that'd be fun. If my boss came along tomorrow and said, I want you to take this region, this boss, and Elika and make a videogame about those characters, I'd have the source material I need because there's a consistent story there.

"We see a lot of potential there in terms of maybe one day growing the brand - all that is highly based off the sales of this game. If this does really, really well and Ubisoft says more, then we're ready for it. But if that doesn't happen, we won't."

However, Mattes was keen to stress the current project is self-contained, regardless of whether sequels or spin-offs do become viable.

"It has to be standalone; it is," he insisted. "If we never make another Prince of Persia game after this, you will know what happened to the Prince and Elika and the world as a result of this game. But if someone does decide we want to make other games, the universe is carefully set up to permit that."

Prince of Persia is due for release this Christmas on PS3, 360, PC and DS. For much more from Mattes and to find out what we made of the E3 demo of this tantalising title, check out the preview on Eurogamer today.