Ubisoft Gets Called Out By Baldur's Gate 3 Exec For Poor Prince Of Persia Sales

The Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is considered to be one of the best games of 2024 and brought a breath of fresh air to a franchise. Despite the critical acclaim, the game failed to meet Ubisoft’s financial expectations, leading to the team that worked on the game to be disbanded and sent to work on other projects. This series of events led to Michael Douse, Director of Publishing at Larian, the company that worked on smash hit Baldur’s Gate 3, speaking out about the situation.

On a post on social media platform X, Douse says that “If it had released on Steam not only would it have been a market success, but there would likely be a sequel because the team are so strong. It’s such a broken strategy. The hardest thing is to make a 85+ game — it is much, much easier to release one. It just shouldn’t be done as it was.” This in reference to Ubisoft’s strategy of releasing games on their own storefront and ignoring Steam.


Douse is making a solid point, as Steam is the biggest storefront for PC gamers. If maximum return on investment is what Ubisoft was aiming for, it’s decision to not put the game on Steam when it launched played a large part in the poor sales numbers. Even more so with the popularity of the Steam Deck, which would’ve provided an excellent experience judging by the fact that the game can even hit 60fps on the Nintendo Switch.

Ubisoft’s fumbling of one of its best game releases in the last few years doesn't paint the company in the best light. If it doesn’t resthink its strategies for high-profile game launches, it could mean muhc more pain for Ubisoft moving forward.