$5.8 Million With Zero Strings Attached: Prince of Persia Fan Offers Ubisoft Private Funding to Finish the Canceled Sands of Time Remake
Over $5.8 million (€5 million) placed directly on the table, with zero demand for sales royalties or intellectual property rights: that is the extraordinary proposal currently lighting up the Prince of Persia community. Roughly ten months after Ubisoft officially pulled the plug on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, a passionate fan and private investor published an open letter on X (under the handle NachoRB10) offering to personally fund the completion of the troubled project.
An Initial €5 Million ($5.8 Million) Offer With Zero Strings Attached
In the open letter addressed directly to Ubisoft's leadership, the prospective backer outlines an unusual model of pure gaming patronage. Unlike a venture capital firm or a rival publisher looking to acquire dormant catalog rights, the donor emphasizes that their sole objective is to help the development team cross the finish line so years of existing work do not remain locked away on internal servers.
"My motivation is not to obtain financial profits, a share of the sales, or any rights over the intellectual property. My only goal would be to help make this video game reach the players and allow the community to enjoy the work that has been done."
To demonstrate the seriousness of the pitch and open formal discussions with Ubisoft's legal and executive departments, the investor specified the exact starting capital available while leaving full creative authority in the publisher's hands:
"I have an initial budget of more than €5,000,000 that I would be willing to allocate to study this possibility, subject to a formal agreement, to the project's viability, and to the conditions that Ubisoft considers appropriate."
- Proposed Capital: More than €5,000,000 (approximately $5.6 million to $5.8 million USD) in private funds.
- Financial Return Requested: 0% revenue share, zero sales royalties, and no claim over the Prince of Persia intellectual property.
- Creative Control: Zero interference in game design or studio decisions, asking only for an official corporate channel to evaluate the project's viability.
Six Years of Development Turmoil, From Pune and Mumbai to Montreal
The reason this multi-million-dollar olive branch resonates so strongly with players lies in the agonizing history of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake. First unveiled in September 2020 with a planned January 2021 launch window, the project was originally entrusted to Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai. Following widespread community backlash over the initial trailer's visual fidelity, the game suffered multiple delays before Ubisoft transferred full leadership in May 2022 to Ubisoft Montreal, the birthplace of the 2003 classic.
Despite overhauling the project from the ground up in Montreal to modernize its parkour, combat, and time-rewinding mechanics, the remake was ultimately axed in January 2026. As part of a sweeping corporate restructuring that saw six games canceled simultaneously, Ubisoft stated that while the project held real potential, reaching the required quality bar would have demanded more time and financial investment than the company could responsibly commit. That cautious stance reflects a broader portfolio shift, as Ubisoft recently ruled out greenlighting additional remakes beyond its upcoming Black Flag overhaul.
Why $5.8 Million Is Unlikely to Change Ubisoft's Corporate Calculus
From a strictly operational and legal standpoint, convincing a publicly traded publisher to accept private funding from an individual fan faces massive hurdles. At the average burn rate of a major North American AAA studio like Ubisoft Montreal, a $5.8 million injection covers roughly six to eight months of production for a mid-sized team of a hundred developers, before factoring in global marketing, QA certification, and localization costs.
More importantly, the engineers, animators, and level designers assigned to the remake were reallocated months ago to flagship pipelines, at a time when Ubisoft Montreal is focusing its resources on Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe for 2027. Accepting an external viability audit to revive a shelved build would also require reassembling a dismantled production line, something Ubisoft has not publicly signaled any willingness to consider.
My Take
Putting nearly six million dollars of your own money on the table without asking for a single cent in return, purely so players can finally wield the Dagger of Time on modern hardware, is a gesture of pure passion that deserves massive respect. Looking at the reality on the ground, The Sands of Time Remake never died because Ubisoft ran out of petty cash. It died after six years of purgatory between Pune, Mumbai, and Montreal because executive production failed to manage a blueprint that was already written twenty years ago.
When you watch publishers like Capcom deliver polished, critically acclaimed Resident Evil remakes like clockwork while Ubisoft burns tens of millions in internal review committees before pulling the plug, the root issue isn't funding, it's governance. Even with a no-strings-attached check waiting, corporate pride alone ensures Ubisoft won't pick up the phone: admitting a fan had to pay to finish your own studio's homework would be the ultimate confession of management failure.
SEO consultant for over 20 years and digital entrepreneur, Charles "Grimtag" is the founder of Pro-Gamer.gg, Retrocharting.com, and Gamescharting.com. A competitive gamer, streamer, and retro game collector, he has worked in the video game industry for over 15 years, notably as a consultant for leading game price comparison platforms. Passionate about real-time performance data and gaming technology, he analyzes competitive esports, gaming hardware benchmarks, and creator workflows on Pro-Gamer.gg with an authentic player perspective.
