Prince of Persia roguelike postponed because ‘everyone and their mum’ is playing Hades II

Sometimes you gotta know when to hold ‘em, and that’s exactly what Evil Empire, developer on The Rogue Prince of Persia, has done. Today, the studio announced that it would postpone the release of its Prince of Persia-themed roguelike to give players more time with another roguelike that released earlier this week… *checks notes* Hades II.

“Seeing as everyone and their mum is playing that game (including our entire team… and their mums), we have decided to let people have their fun with it before we release The Rogue Prince of Persia,” the studio explained in a statement.

Originally, The Rogue Prince of Persia was scheduled to enter early access on May 14th. But now, with Hades II in the mix, Evil Empire decided, in one of the best examples of “game recognize game,” to just get out of its way.

“It’s not every day that a game in the same genre as you […] will release into early access a week before you plan to do the same,” the studio wrote in its announcement. “We are not prideful enough to ignore the implications of that, and we truly believe that this short delay is the best decision for us.”

You know that comic where an artist is upset because their cake doesn’t look as cool as another cake and the next panel is an enthusiastic customer excited that they have two cakes? This week is very much a “two cake” situation, but instead of two cakes, it’s a boatload of indie video games.

Evil Empire wrote that it still plans on releasing The Rogue Prince of Persia this month and that this postponement will allow it a bit more time to polish the game. The studio will formally announce the game’s new release date next week.