Breaking Barriers: Prince of Persia Finally Speaks Persian

"It was a dream come true to work on a Prince of Persia game!" Sepehr Torabi, an experienced voice actor, recalls his excitement when he was hired to provide voices for multiple characters in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Torabi runs his own sound studio, Persian Dub Group, which produces content including voice acting and music for Iranian digital games and has ventured into international markets by providing dubbing services for upcoming Chinese games. He was hired by Moj-e Kitab, a prominent Iranian book publication and voice acting agency, for a project referred to as 'The Iranian Prince,' which he believed to be an unofficial translation or a new IP from an Iranian developer. However, the true nature of the project remained a mystery until later. Torabi was not allowed to see the script before recording, which made him suspicious that he might be involved with the upcoming Prince of Persia game. He was thrilled to learn that he would be working on The Lost Crown, despite initial uncertainty and personal troubles. The game's full localization into Persian is a milestone, as it is the first Western game to be fully localized into the language. Persian is spoken by around 130 million people worldwide, primarily in Iran and Afghanistan, but the geopolitical situation and diplomatic challenges have created barriers for game localization. The Farsi localization, voice production, sound production, and performance were handled by Cutting Edge FZC. While there have been a few games with official Persian localization, such as Darksiders 3 with Persian subtitles, the quality of these subtitles faced criticism from Iranians. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown's localization involves full dubbing into Persian, a significant step forward for the industry. Lida Mahmoudi, the project manager of Moj-e Kitab, notes that the uniqueness of this project lies in its official localization with Ubisoft's supervision, unprecedented in the industry. Torabi remembers hearing Persian words in previous Prince of Persia titles and always hoped for a game with full localization. He believes that this project is not only a big step forward for dubbing and localization in Iran but also a substantial step forward for him as a professional voice actor. The dub has received a positive reaction from the Iranian gaming community, with hopes that Ubisoft will continue to localize their games into Persian. The attention to local culture is not limited to localization, as the game includes a variety of Persian locations, mythologies, creatures, and more. The developers have made explicit efforts to create a Prince of Persia that feels truly Persian, with a basis in historical Iran and Persian mythologies. While there are hopes for the future of localization and including the Persian language in games, some developers are skeptical due to the lack of official records and Western sanctions. However, the positive reception of The Lost Crown's localization may start a domino effect, encouraging more publishers to invest in Persian localization. Regardless of the outcome, everyone involved believes that The Lost Crown is a massive step forward in representing Persian culture, despite criticisms and issues.