Test Footage Showcases a Prince of Persia Game That Never Was

Footage of a previously unheard of Prince of Persia game has surfaced today on YouTube, showing what might have been for the iconic series that has been on ice for 10 years. Called Redemption, the video highlights a story-driven, fairly linear-looking action game with parkour traversal and melee combat.

The footage was found today by Reddit user Anotheronebiteofass, who explained he “was just googling different prince of Persia stuff on a wave of nostalgia with custom search options.”

What is most bizarre, though, is that the video has actually floating around on YouTube for a long, long time without gathering any interest.

As in, it’s eight years old! Understandably, the belated discovery of this circa 2012 Prince of Persia game is causing a lot head-scratching. Particularly so, as the YouTube channel itself has no other videos and no additional information about the game — although one Twitter user has snapped a two-year-old comment (now deleted) from a Ubisoft employee who is obviously surprised to see it on his channel!

Subsequent information from peripheral sources has since confirmed this is what is known as “target game footage,” which is essentially a video render used to represent gameplay. Studios typically include them when pitching a new project to a publisher.

According to former Ubisoft developer Jonothon Cooper, this particular footage was created by Khai Nguyen, an animation director who has since worked on For Honor. In his Tweet, Cooper goes on to explain that the impressive video inspired his own Ubisoft team’s pitch for Assassin’s Creed 3.

The last mainline entry in the Prince of Persia series was 2010’s The Forgotten Sands, which was received fairly well. However, for its marquee third-person action franchise, Ubisoft has since opted to stick with its highly popular Assassin’s Creed series.

Anecdotally, today’s video comes after users over on Reddit discovered what appeared to be Ubisoft registering a new domain for Prince of Persia 6. This was, however, later proved a hoax.