ubisoft

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones [Beta]

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is an action-adventure game developed and published by Ubisoft Montreal. It was released in December 2005 for the Xbox, PC, PlayStation 2 and the GameCube. In the game the Prince develops a split personality, known as the Dark Prince, and this alter-ego constantly bickers with him in his mind about right and wrong. At times, the Prince physically transforms into the Dark Prince. [Info from Wikipedia]

As noticed by Zapages from the NeoGAF Forum, initially the Dark Prince had a different design than the one in the final version. Check the videos below for a comparison:

Video (Beta Dark Prince)

Video (Final Dark Prince)

 

Rayman [SNES – Cancelled]

The original Rayman is a 2D platform game developed and published by Ubisoft on September 1995 for the PlayStation and Jaguar. Early in its development, Rayman was planned for the Super Nintendo and the game featured a 2 players coop mode and different graphics. It seems that Ubisoft decided to move the project to the new CD-Rom consoles and they hired animators from a cartoon company which has considerably improved the graphics. [Info from Wikipedia]

TYKUN found some images from the unreleased Super Nintendo version in french magazine Pix’N’Love #13. In the article we can read:

Long before the Jaguar and PlayStation versions, Michel Ancel and his team were working on Rayman for the SNES. Even if it was  in advanced development, the game was stopped in favor of the CD support. As exclusives, here are a few pictures from this aborted version

The original story was going to be about an eleven-year-old boy named Jimmy. Jimmy takes advantage of the realms that he discovers within his computer to create a fantasy world called Hereitscool.

Thanks to Adamis and TYKUN for the contributions! A few more details on the cancelled SNES version of Rayman can be found in Pix ‘n Love book “L’Histoire de Rayman” (french only) by Michaël Guarné, you can buy it from Amazon FR, Amazon USA, Amazon UK or Amazon IT.

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Splinter Cell: Conviction [X360 PC – Beta]

Splinter Cell: Conviction is a stealth / action game developed by Ubisoft Montreal, released in April, 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PC. The project was originally announced on May, 2007 when Ubisoft released a trailer for the game. It depicted a more rugged-looking Sam with long hair and a fully-grown beard. He had the ability to blend in with the environment, interact with tables and chairs and engage in hand-to-hand combat with enemies.

The game was due for release in November, 2007. However, it missed its initial launch date and on May, 2008 Xbox World 360 magazine reported that Splinter Cell: Conviction was “officially on hold” and that the game had been taken “back to the drawing board.” While Ubisoft never confirmed this, they announced that the game had been pushed back to the 2009-10 fiscal year.

The game resurfaced at E3 2009 with a completely new visual style and a more casual-looking Sam. The developers confirmed that the “new” Conviction had been in development since early 2008, commenting that “the gameplay has evolved a lot” and “the visual direction is simply much better.” [Info from Wikipedia]

We can say that the original Splinter Cell Conviction was cancelled, as the final game and gameplay look very different from what was shown in 2007.

Thanks to Userdante for the contribution! Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!

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Disney’s Atlantis [PS2 – Prototype]

Atlantis is a prototype for a game based on the Disney film of the same name, that was created by Ubisoft Canada in 2000 / 2001. As we can read on Wikipedia, the movie begins with a reenactment of the sinking of the legendary city of Atlantis, but the main story begins thousands of years later in 1914, when Milo James Thatch, an aspiring young cartographer/linguist/explorer, believes he has found the secret to the location of Atlantis.

While some Atlantis games were released for the GBA, PSX and PC, a PS2 version was never published. It seems that Ubisoft tried to pitch their  demo to Disney, but for some reasons they decided to not give the permission to use the Atlantis license for a Playstation 2 project.

Thanks a lot to Stephane for his help in preserving some screens from the prototype!

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The Ace Of Spade [PS2 – Cancelled]

The Ace of Spade is a cancelled action game that was in development by Ubisoft in 2004, for the Playstation 2. The team created an early playable prototype that was probably used for an internal pitch, but in the end the project was never finished for unknown reasons. The game had a cover/fire system similar to the one used in Namco’s Kill Switch and later in Gear of Wars.

Thanks to Hey Hey for the contribution!

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