If you've felt that 2008's Prince of Persia reboot and the more recent Forgotten Sands were a significant departure from The Sand of Time universe, wait until you know that Ubisoft was actually working on a Prince of Persia title that takes place in modern day.
"After [an unannounced Assassin's Creed title for Xbox and PS2 was canceled, Ubisoft] wanted a spin-off for Prince of Persia," ex-Ubisoft employee Jonathan Jacques-Belletête said. "We had some awesome ideas with that too... in contemporary time."
"[Development on Prince of Persia 2008] had already started at that point," he added. "But they wanted really something completely out of the left field. And back then I was known as one of the ones... 'oh this guy can get some pretty cool, weird ideas'."
"So I had this little team, and [the game] was actually in the contemporary world. Think a bit Day After Tomorrow, but replace the snow with sand and everything. It was really wicked. But it got cancelled, and then we did all the Far Crys."