After more than a decade, a brand new mainline Prince of Persia game is finally coming to consoles, and Prince of Persia The Lost Crown will be making full use of the horsepower afforded to it on current-gen consoles. At least, according to the numbers revealed by developer Ubisoft ahead of its launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S later this month.
Sharing the spec sheet in a recent post, Sargon’s 2.5D side-scrolling adventure is set to get full 4K support “up to 120fps” on the PS5 and Xbox Series X, adding it to the limited list of games that can actually make full use of the best PS5 monitors, best Xbox Series X monitors, and best gaming TVs. Of course, “up to” isn’t definitive and we’ll have to test the numbers for ourselves when the Prince of Persia The Lost Crown release date arrives, but if it performs up to par then we’re certainly in for a visual treat.
Although plenty of the best PS5 games and best Xbox games can operate either at 4K or at 120 FPS, those that can run at both are scarce. As developers continue to push current-gen hardware to its absolute limit, it’s unsurprising that top titles like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Halo Infinite – one of the Xbox exclusives we’re hoping to see a return to prominence in 2024 – don’t come close to topping out the output capabilities of their respective consoles. This isn’t detrimental to the player experience in any way – they’re some of the best games for a reason – but it explains why we seldom see these sorts of numbers.
While Team Green’s latest and greatest hardware will get the full suite of performance bells and whistles, players on the less powerful Series S are set to miss out. According to Ubi, you’ll only be able to achieve 60fps at a resolution of 1440p, though this is still technically the maximum output possible for the Series X’s smaller sibling – no loss there.
As the specs remind us, The Lost Crown isn’t exclusive to PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, either. Over on Nintendo’s Switch, Ubisoft is promising 720p at 60fps in handheld mode, which is bumped up to 1080p when docked. On last-gen hardware, we’re looking at 4K 60fps support on the PS4 Pro while the base PS4 is relegated to 1080p. Likewise, the Xbox One X gets the 4K 60fps treatment whereas both the One and the One S experience can be enjoyed only at 1080p.
While The Lost Crown isn’t related to any of the other Prince of Persia games out there, the timey wimey stuff that we know and love from The Sands of Time will be present. It might not be the full 3D experience we’ve been praying for since the long-delayed SoT remake was announced back in 2020, but with Ubisoft Montpellier at the helm – that’s the team behind the Rayman series, by the way – and series creator Jordan Mechner blessing it as “the Prince Persia game I’ve been wishing for”, there’s a lot to be excited about.
With plenty of new PS5 games and new Xbox games lined up for 2024, the year could be off to a flying start should The Lost Crown land. Having been Prince of Persia-starved for so long we, alongside many other players, are chomping at the bit to see what Sargon’s story has in store with the hopes that it can become one of the best Metroidvania games of 2024.