The French video game publisher Ubisoft released the first major installment of the popular video game franchise “Prince of Persia” in nearly 14 years on January 18 titled “The Lost Crown” and it is the first time since it was first unveiled in 1989 in which the characters actually speak Farsi.

According to The Iran Project,Speaking about the collaboration with Ubisoft Montpellier, a subsidiary of Ubisoft, the secretary general of the Tehran Broadcast & Dubbing Association said: “The French company, together with an intermediary company in Iran, negotiated with different groups and asked for voice samples. 

“Finally, they selected Moj-e-Ketab Digital Publishing Group for dubbing the game in Persian,” Honaronline quoted Sobhan Ekrami, who served as the director of the dubbing team, as saying on Sunday.

“When the dubbing process was over, they liked the work. According to their procedure, before the official release of the game, the company had some gamers, especially some famous Persian-speaking gamers, play and assess the game. Fortunately, it was well received by all the gamers. Upon the release of the game, the company suggested to all the customers that for a better experience of the game play it in Farsi,” he added.

The “Prince of Persia” franchise draws heavily on Persian mythology and Iranian culture, but until now has always been in English. 

The game's designer, Mounir Radi, said that the developers wanted to “depict and respect Persia and Iran” in the gameplay. “It was natural for us to say, 'if we are going into this culture, we have to be true to this culture, we have to do this”.

Among the updates for the new version was an increased effort to add elements like language and history that made the game more authentic to the region it depicts.

The game's producer Abdelhak Elguess said they were “very proud” to have made the changes. “We have so many people from Persian cultures that are very happy,” he said.

Emad Saedi has been a fan of the games since he was a child when he connected with the series' cultural references to Persia but says something always felt off.

“Those games were missing a fundamental element of the culture the prince came from: language,” he said. “My friends and I always had this question that if he's a Persian prince, how come he speaks English or any language except Persian? Isn't that odd?”

Emad said it is a “huge step forward” to include the language, in part because he felt Iran and Persian culture are “under-represented in today's world”.

“In a world that is saturated with Western culture content, seeing something from other parts of the world feels like a breath of fresh air, especially from a hidden gem like Iran,” he said. “It feels like we are finally being seen after being ignored for many years. There are many wonderful stories in our culture with massive commercial potential - I hope the entertainment industry recognizes this opportunity and continues to invest in them”.

Persian is spoken by a significant number of people worldwide, totaling around 130 million. Other than Iran, it serves as an official language in various countries including Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

“Prince of Persia” is centered around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia.

Its latest installment “The Lost Crown” has been released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S and received positive reviews from critics and gamers.

The game was heavily inspired by Persian mythology, with Radi adding that the team wanted to “bring some light to a mythology that maybe should be better known,” as well as showing how Persian culture has affected other mythologies.