Prince signed with Lancashire in 2012, the year they defended their title in the County Championship. Prince managed four half-centuries before registering his first hundred of the season. Until that innings against Middlesex the last ten times Prince had reached 50 he had not converted it into a century. Prince finished the season with 1,008 runs from 15 first-class matches at an average of 43.82 including two centuries; Lancashire, however, were relegated to the second division of the Championship. Prince was the county's leading run scorer, and the only Lancashire player to score more than 1,000 runs that year.