Last month, the remake of the classic game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was officially canceled by the publisher, ending years of development. Since then, multiple leaks of information related to the project have appeared on the Internet, including complete development showcases, further revealing the game's development status before cancellation. Recently, some fans have discovered more critical content - the actual game build version of the game has been found on the public platform.
It is reported that the Hidden Palace website, which is dedicated to video game preservation, has included an archive of the PlayStation 4 prototype version of the remake of "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time", with the internal number CUSA18521. This build was completed between 2020 and 2021, when the project was developed by Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai. The file in question is about 13GB in size and was saved by a user. Its origin is believed to be related to Ubisoft's previous mistakenly opening pre-loading on the PS Store before the originally planned but also failed release date.
Currently, this build cannot be run. The files are stored in encrypted PKG format and require a corresponding decryption key or authorization to open, and the relevant information has not yet been made public. Technology enthusiasts point out that obtaining keys through brute force is almost impossible under real conditions.
At this stage, the only content that can be extracted from the unencrypted portion is some technical images, which indicate that the remaster was planned to support the PlayStation Vita's Remote Play feature.
Against this backdrop, the reveal of this build sparked more discussion. Previously, after the project was canceled, the person in charge of the level design publicly stated that although the project was not completed, he was still proud of the work the team had done. Currently, this build will be saved as an archive of unfinished projects, and it is unclear whether further content will be made public.