Ubisoft crowns new Prince of Persia

As one of Ubisoft's best-known, not to mention best-selling, franchises, Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia series was a shoo-in to return despite 2005's billed conclusion to the Sands of Time trilogy, The Two Thrones. In January, Ubisoft gave first wind of a new game in any official capacity, saying as part of its third-quarter financial report that Prince of Persia would bound to new ledges sometime during the publisher's 2008-09 fiscal year.

Today, Ubisoft officially confirmed Prince of Persia for a holiday 2008 release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Details on the Ubisoft Montreal-developed game are light, but Ubisoft has said the game will be "a new chapter" in the franchise that tinkers with traditional action adventure gameplay. The publisher also said the game will introduce a new illustrative art style to the series. A separate version featuring "an entirely new storyline and new characters" is also in the works for the Nintendo DS.

Noticeably absent from today's announcement was a subtitle for the new Prince of Persia game. When rumors first surfaced of a new game in the franchise in October, the mysterious gaming industry blogger Surfer Girl pegged the game's surname as Ghosts of the Past. However, Surfer Girl was under the impression that the game, which she said would forgo "the dark edginess of the last two titles in favor a fantastical cross between The Sands of Time, Ico, and Zelda," would also appear on the Wii.

A second subtitle for the game surfaced last week. First spotted by Trademork, Prince of Persia Prodigy turned up in the United States Patent and Trademark Office's online database. However, the application did not reveal which platforms the game would appear on.