Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake lead voice actress Eman Ayaz, who played the role of Farah, wasn’t informed by Ubisoft about the game’s cancellation prior to the announcement.
In a recent video on her YouTube channel, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time lead remake voice actress Eman Ayaz, who played the role of Farah, revealed that she learned about the project’s cancellation not from Ubisoft, but through the internet. She described the remake as a “life-changing project”, one she had dedicated three years of her life to, and what could have been her big break in the industry.
Ayaz explained that her brother first reached out via WhatsApp, asking if she was okay. Confused, she replied that she was fine, until he sent her a link to an article announcing that the remake had been shelved indefinitely. “That’s where I read that it has been shelved forever,” she said, describing the moment as a “total shock.” At the time, she had heard nothing from Ubisoft, despite having filmed marketing material for the game just a month or two earlier.
Bound by a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), the Farah voice actress was unable to discuss what the game would have been like, but she mentioned that its cancellation should not be taken as a sign of poor quality. “It’s pretty easy for audiences to just assume that it was probably bad anyway,” she said. adding that this wasn’t the case here. She noted that the industry’s risk-averse, cash-driven decisions often treat artists’ lives and work as collateral damage.
As a Canadian Pakistani Muslim, Ayaz spoke about the scarcity of roles available to her and how much she had planned her future around the game’s release, including pursuing work opportunities in the United States. “I’m grieving a huge part of my life, my past, what was my present, and what I thought was my future,” she said.
Her experience echoes sentiments shared by other contributors to the project. Graphic designer and calligrapher Hatem Arafa addressed the cancellation in an Instagram post, saying that the cancellation was “not easy” and noting that he had been eagerly waiting to talk about his work on the game’s calligraphy elements. After Assassin’s Creed Mirage, the remake was meant to be his second major video game project.
