“A Very Big Company Making…”: Baldur’s Gate 3 Dev Decodes Ubisoft’s Formula for the Success of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown reviews are out and it looks like the franchise is back in style! The new Ubisoft adventure had looked more promising than ever, but the fans were looking forward to what the reviews had to say about the game. Now, with the reviews out, the excitement around the game has only been further fueled. But what makes the latest main entry in the Prince of Persia series stand out?

Ever since the countdown to The Lost Crown began, there had been a running sense of skepticism around the game. The game being the first major entry since 2010’s The Forgotten Sands raised a lot of questions. However, the gameplay trailer did wonders, leaving fans wanting more. Following the impressive critical reception to Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, here’s what a GOTY dev thinks. 

Larian Studios developer believes cost cutting could be a brilliant move for The Lost Crown

Michael Douse, the Director of Publishing for Larian Studios, has been left highly impressed with the buzz around Prince of Persia: The Lost Prince. The Baldur’s Gate 3 dev took to their social media and deciphered the possible reasons behind Ubisoft’s promising outing with the new game. According to Michael Douse, Ubisoft’s decision not to make The Lost Crown a AAA title and rather cut the cost made it such a delightful experience! 

“I haven’t played it but this *could* be a shining example of a very big company making a better game by scaling back costs, rather than scaling them up. You can probably sell a lot more copies of a very good Metroidvania than a mediocre AAA game,” Douse wrote in the tweet. 

The tweet came in response to Game Informer’s review of The Lost Crown, giving it a stellar 9.5/10! While they weren’t too impressed with the story, they stated, “The Lost Crown makes it hard to put the controller down, constantly urging players to follow its paths just a little further.” They praised the game for its combat, platforming and accessibility options.

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Michael Douse also made an interesting suggestion on Legacy of Kain and its potential to make a grand return like the Prince of Persia. In the X thread, Michael Douse emphasized how tight gameplay loops do not require the AAA tag to succeed. Makes you wonder what’s next for the blueprint of big celebrated AAA adventures.

Gaming community making the shift from AAA fever

For a while now, AAA games have followed a sure-shot hit formula in the industry. The big expansions, open worlds, and high production value have made their strong case in the markets.Meanwhile, it has been a special year for ‘smaller’ games. With the likes of Dave the Diver, Hades, Dead Cells, and now Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, you can sense a shift in appeal. The reason behind the recent smaller game trends was also deduced by Michael Douse. 

“Possible AAA is waking up to the fact (born of open world fatigue?) that perhaps tightness > scale? It is kinda fun to imagine the ‘smaller’ games being the core expressions of major IPs though, rather than the ‘smaller’ games being some spin-off. Yes, Nintendo style. Unavoidably the case. Caveat: they have to be 85+ Metacritic games,” the Larian Studios’ Director added to the conclusion. 

This does spark an interesting debate on how the success of recent smaller games alters the approach of industry giants. Do you agree with the Baldur’s Gate 3 dev’s take on AAA fatigue? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

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