It's been two years since the last Prince of Persia game, but with the Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands coming out alongside the theatrical release of the Prince of Persia movie, you would think the series would have more fans. In reality, many of the original Prince of Persia fans have since transitioned to the wildly popular and much more graphically violent God of War franchise.

Animation director for the 2008 Prince of Persia Jan-Erik Sjovall was interviewed by CVG regarding the fans leaving and he had this to say:

When we make questionnaires and we ask, 'what did you play in the past?' The answer's 'Prince of Persia'. 'What do you play now?' 'God of War'. 'Would you play Prince of Persia again?' 'No, it's not hard enough'

Sjovall was also asked why players have switched franchises and he replied:

Partially maybe the animations - the death animations.

Not a surprising answer at all, actually. Gamers who like playing action-adventure games usually end up playing them for the visceral and brutal combat, games like God of War or Ninja Gaiden certainly do their best to drive that point home. Attributes that 2008's Prince of Persia lacked. However, I felt Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was an amazing game, a great blend of action, platforming, and puzzles. I'm certainly not alone in this judgment, either, Sands of Time was one of the most critically acclaimed games ever when it was released. Sjovall believes that the upcoming Forgotten Sands game will return Prince of Persia to the style action-adventure fans prefer:

So the idea was clearly that we'd try to bring our old audience back, but also we're winning a new audience. A lot of people ask, 'will you have gore in the game?' ... We want to have interesting fight sequences in there but not indulge in the violence like God of War does. We want to keep it interesting so the acrobatics, the story and the whole look are all supporting each other and people go, 'yeah, I want to play that game'.

I agree with Sjovall, I don't think you need to have gore in your game to make it something compelling. Would the God of War 3 action sequences be as good even if they didn't have blood? Blood and gore only really serve to drive home the gravity of the situation of what the player character is doing. In addition, I'm hoping the latest Prince game will have more of that Sands of Time feeling and not Warrior Within.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will be released May 18 in the US, and May 20 in Europe. Check out the latest movie trailer at our sister site Screen Rant.

Source: Kotaku