Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, which has been delayed twice since its unveiling last September, now won't arrive until some time next year.

Originally, the Sands of Time remake - which is being developed by Ubisoft Pune and Mumbai - was due to launch this January, but Ubisoft made the decision to postpone its release to March at the end of last year. When February arrived, however, the publisher announced it would be delaying the game once more, this time indefinitely, while it worked on delivering "a remake that feels fresh while remaining faithful to the original".

All's been quiet on the news front since then, but in a new statement posted to Twitter - ostensibly confirming that the remake will be absent from this year's Ubisoft Forward livestream - the publisher has shared a revised release window of 2022 for the project.

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Ubisoft has announced a second delay for its Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, which had already seen its release date shifted from January 2021 to 18th March in a decision made late last year. It's now due to arrive on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC at an unspecified "later date".

In a newly released statement posted to Twitter, Ubisoft wrote, "Since announcing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake in September, we saw an outpouring of feedback from you on this beloved franchise. It is your passion and support that is driving our development teams to make the best game possible."

With that in mind, the decision has been made to push the game's 18th March launch back "to a later date" and the publisher says it will be using the additional development time to "deliver a remake that feels fresh while remaining faithful to the original".

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UPDATE 5PM UK: Ubisoft UK has now confirmed its Prince of Persia delay also applies here too.

ORIGINAL STORY 2PM UK: Ubisoft has apparently delayed its upcoming Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake until 18th March 2021, according to the publisher's Czech Republic Facebook page.

The remake was previously due to arrive in January.

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After various leaks, Ubisoft has now officially announced Prince of Persia will return to PC and consoles for the first time in a decade, in what it is calling its first "fully-fledged" remake.

This new version of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will arrive for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 21st January, and is playable on both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X via backwards compatibility.

In a virtual presentation seen by Eurogamer last week, game director Pierre Sylvain-Gires and senior producer Annu Koul detailed some of the work done on the game to update it.

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UPDATE: Ubisoft has officially announced Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake after this morning's leak.

It's due out 21st January 2021 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The trailer is below:

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For some, a video game doesn't stop when the power is turned off - their gaming experiences are bleeding into their day-to-day lives.

This can lead to video game-like reactions to real-life situations, Nottingham Trent University and Stockholm University have discovered.

It's called Game Transfer Phenomena.

The study - Game Transfer Phenomena in Video Game Playing: A Qualitative Interview Study - interviewed 42 "frequent" gamers aged between 15 and 21 years old. "Many" of the subjects "appeared to integrate elements of video game playing into their real lives".

The full study must be bought for $30. One amusing excerpt reported on The Metro website describe a 15 year-old boy wanting to use a gravity gun from Half-Life 2 to fetch something from the fridge. And why not?

One 19-year-old Price of Persia: Sands of Time enthusiast dropped his sandwich and immediately his finger used to press the rewind-time button twitched. A natural response.

Another 19-year-old thought he could use World of Warcraft's search function to locate his brother in a crowd. What a good idea.

Apparently half of the gamers interviewed said they'd looked for something from a video game to solve a real-life issue. One interviewee apparently saw a menu of topics available for him to think about (Heavy Rain?); another formulated a list of possible responses after being insulted (Mass Effect 2?).

Of course, there is a darker side to all of this. Use of aggressive, criminal and/or violent fantasies as solutions to real-life problems were reported by "a few" of the players.

The Daily Mail focused on one particular 15-year-old who said that "sometimes" he wants to be able to get a gun and "shoot down" people. "Irritating people", mind you.

"A recurring trend suggests that intensive gaming may lead to negative psychological, emotional or behavioural consequences," concluded report author professor Mark Griffiths, "with enormous implications for software developers, parents, policy makers and mental health professionals."

This research is being followed up by a study of 2000 gamers.

The Game Transfer Phenomena report hits headlines a day after Grand Theft Auto was linked to a shooting spree and eventually a murder onboard a Royal Navy submarine.

Video: What a useful tool the Gravity Gun would be.