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Prince of Persia
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Prince of Persia

electronic game series
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Article History

Prince of Persia, electronic action-adventure game series, originally developed by the American game company Brøderbund Software in 1989 for Apple Inc.’s Apple II home computer. (Brøderbund was acquired by the Learning Company [a division of Mattel, Inc., an American toy company] in 1998.) The Prince of Persia franchise was later acquired by the French game company Ubisoft Entertainment. Originally designed by the American computer programmer Jordan Mechner, the Prince of Persia franchise boasts nearly a dozen game releases for personal computers (PCs) and various video-game consoles.

The original Prince of Persia, which had strong platform game elements, follows the Prince, a character who begins as a beggar on a quest to reach the Princess. The game’s villain, Jaffar, is attempting to rule Persia by rising to power in the Sultan’s absence. In particular, Jaffar plans to marry the Princess in order to become Sultan, but a side-scrolling adventure ensues when the Prince contests that plan. As an additional challenge, the player is on a timer and has only 60 minutes to beat the game. Whenever the Prince dies, he has to restart his current level, or section of the game, and loses time. Prince of Persia kept players entertained with advanced graphics, challenging puzzles, and innovative twists. The original story line ended after two releases in the 1990s, but 2003 saw the release of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time by Ubisoft. The Sands of Time was a hit, scoring high points for graphics and dynamic controls, and it ushered in two popular sequels, The Warrior Within (2004) and The Two Thrones (2005).

A graphic novel chronicling the Prince of Persia’s adventures, written by Mechner, was released in 2008. Ubisoft also released Prince of Persia (2008) for PCs and for the Microsoft Corporation’s Xbox 360 and the Sony Corporation’s PlayStation 3 video-game consoles. The game Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands and the film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time both debuted in May 2010, with Jake Gyllenhaal filling the role of the big-screen prince.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Michael Ray.