Climax Studios Developing Prince of Persia Doppelganger

Climax Studios, the development team behind such colorful titles as Silent Hill: Origins, Ghost Rider, and Overlord: Dark Legend is working hard on a new character-action platformer. That statement in itself isn’t all that exciting, but once you take a gander at a few of the images that closely resemble the Prince of Persia franchise, things get a bit more interesting.

IGN was first to spot this new game, which brandishes a hero who’s almost a mirror image of the Prince seen during the PlayStation 2 and Xbox era. From his wavy hair to the iconic curved blade with a circular hilt bottom, the protagonist of this unnamed project looks like he could be the brother to one of Ubisoft’s most popular heroes – or even the Prince himself. The Middle Eastern setting seen in the image below just continues to pile on the game’s similarities.

So, is now the time for this acrobatic hero to return? It seems unlikely, as Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat stated just months ago that the series was on pause until further notice. Mallat believes that the franchise needs time to breathe in order to satisfy its fans.

“Brand management is a tricky thing… It needs people's attention a lot. I think it is fair to say that, right now, Prince of Persia is being paused,” Mallat said. “But we said the same thing for some other brands that suddenly popped up because a team is willing to do it.”

According to that statement, it’s possible that Climax is just the team for the job. The developer currently has another unannounced title in the works for 2013, so for now, we’ll just have to wait for more information before we jump to conclusions.