Industry icon Michel Ancel has officially retired from game development after more than 30 years in the industry. The Rayman creator confirmed the news on Instagram, explaining that he’ll be focusing full-time on his other passion: wild life. “My new project takes place in the real world and consists in a wild life open sanctuary dedicated to education, nature lovers, and wild animals,” he wrote.
So what does this mean for Ancel’s two hotly anticipated titles? Well, firstly, long-awaited PlayStation 4 exclusive WiLD and sequel Beyond Good & Evil 2 are apparently still in development, and there will be “beautiful things to be seen soon”. We’ll try and chase up both Sony and Ubisoft to see if we can get an update on the projects, but we imagine there will be some changes without Ancel at the helm.
[source instagram.com]
Comments 26
These games are never coming out. A shame.
Strange, it's just strange
@get2sammyb I was looking forward to playing Beyond Vapour and Ware 2 and HoT aiR. With or without Ancel they were never coming out anyway.
Two games cancelled in one day. What a shame.
Beyond Good and Vaporware 2.
Also guess Rayman is in the hands of someone else now.
It's a shame to see him leave the industry because he did make some excellent games with his teams. The fate of WiLD and BG&E2 is as questionable as ever, though. I wonder if he'll ever finish his animal sanctuary.
Why is he giving a BJ to a lava lamp?
Wild development is going well no one can say that with a straight face. The usual BS
I couldn't give two craps about BG&E2 getting cancelled because it screamed vaporware from the get-go and Ubisoft seemed to be turning it into yet another live service open-world thing.
Wild, on the other hand, is a damn disappointment. The concept sounded so cool and the footage we got really sold me on the idea. But I knew this was coming after years of not hearing anything major about it since 2015.
@Matroska That's how he made games
I just wanted a Rayman 4
I hope he come back sometime in the future, I like his games.
Beyond Good & Evil 2 always online liveservice keep it. The Wild i likes the old
@Matroska I can confirm that @Quintumply is 100% correct, and you really don't want to know what we have to do to beanbags... Shudders and starts rocking in a darkened corner
Its a pity,as when he was on his game,(so to speak),he oversaw some real gems. Beyond Good & Evil 2 died for me when they moved away from the genuine Jade looking for Pey'j sequel of last gen to the live service MMO hot mess.
Likewise never seeing another 2D Rayman makes me a little sad too- despite the numerous times I've needed to zen quit Origins & Legends,much less the original ps1 games!
Hopefully he's happy in retirement.
Wild is going to be like the last guardian and show back up as a PS5 game in a couple years.
@TheFrenchiestFry Rayman is in the hands of nobody right now apparently. 25th anniversary came and went with no announcements.
#ColinWasRight
@OutspokenGamer Yikes, toxic much? The dude doesn't owe you anything.
Hopefully Randy Pitchford will retire and be forced to live out his days in Michel Ancel's wildlife sanctuary, along with other predatory creatures.
Oh well. I found it suspicious that we hadn't heard anything about these games for a while. Looks like he just got fed up and left. He got his money and now it was time to run
@OutspokenGamer Your previous comment suggests otherwise.
He left because Ubisoft makes a hot mess of his dream project.
@Quintumply he'll probably get bored half way through turn it into an animal battle Royale and become a tea connoisseur
I'm glad for him that he is doing a "Reggie"and not an "Iwata". It's sad when people works till they drop dead.
I guess that what is happening currently at Ubisoft maked his decision easier as well.
As for Rayman, I would like to see what a company likes Wayforward, Toys for Bob or Inti Creates could do with the IP.
I mean there were days sitting at my desk I wanted to quit and become a carpenter or a farmer or anything where you can actually see the problem you're working on… I have a lot of respect for this.
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