The Prince of Persia Hoax Fooled Everyone (And Maybe Wall Street Too)
I honestly don't know if I should laugh or cry at how desperate we have all become for a crumb of nostalgia.
For a few glorious hours, the internet was convinced that Ubisoft was prepping a shadow drop for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and a Black Flag remake. The "leaked" website updates looked legitimate enough to fool the masses, and apparently, it was enough to fool investors too. But as the dust settles, it turns out we didn't find a secret backend update. We just fell for the oldest URL trick in the book.
The "Leak" Was Just a Typo Trick
Credit goes to the sleuths over on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit for bursting this bubble. User KieranGenie pointed out that the "new" pages were just standard Ubisoft 404/redirect templates.
Basically, you can type any garbage you want into a Ubisoft URL, like ubisoft.com/en-us/game/halflife3-confirmed and the site will try to resolve it without throwing a hard error immediately. Someone took a screenshot of a URL ending in sands-of-time-remake, posted it, and the entire community lost its collective mind. It wasn't a leak; it was just how the internet works.
The Desperation Index
Here is where it gets truly dark and hilarious. According to comments on the thread, Ubisoft's stock reportedly jumped nearly 10% off the back of this nonsense.
I want you to really think about that. A bunch of suits saw a Reddit thread about a URL manipulation and decided to throw money at the screen. It proves just how starved people are for a win from Ubisoft. The market is so thirsty for a hit that a fake screenshot can move the needle that hard. It’s absolutely crazy, but it also shows the massive potential pent-up demand for these games.
Don't Lose Hope Yet
Now, before you go punch a hole in your drywall, let's take a breath. Just because this specific website leak was a hoax doesn't mean the game is vaporware.
We have heard from reliable insiders like Tom Henderson time and time again that The Sands of Time is on track. The chatter has consistently pointed toward a Q1 release or reveal. Henderson doesn't usually miss.
So, while the website thing was a total bust, the smoke is still coming from somewhere real. This hoax was just a false alarm, not a death knell. The game is coming. We just have to stop jumping at shadows every time someone learns how to edit a URL. I’m keeping my calendar marked for Q1, and you should too. Just maybe don't buy stock based on a Reddit post next time.
Got a hot take on this? I know you do. Head over to r/neonlightsmedia to discuss it.
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