Rayman creator and Beyond Good and Evil director Michel Ancel says the sequel, Beyond Good and Evil 2, has struggled throughout development due to “problems between managers.” Ancel’s comments come after he left Ubisoft amid allegations of toxic management in 2020 while working on the highly anticipated sequel. BGE 2 has been in development at Ubisoft for over a decade, yet it still doesn’t have a firm release date.
Originally announced in 2008, Beyond Good and Evil 2 has spent the last 16 years in a state of uncertainty. Delays, rumors, official announcements, and leaks have circulated around BGE 2 in that time, with the Beyond Good and Evil 2 release date as uncertain as ever.
In a new interview, Ancel says that Beyond Good and Evil 2 has been marred by a clash between “passion” and issues between leadership. The following excerpts have been machine-translated into English from the original French interview with Superpouvoir.
“On certain projects, we give ourselves very important challenges and we bring teams on board with passion, but without knowing how long and complex the path will be,” Ancel explains.
“Passion is a fabulous energy but it can also lead to clashes between enthusiasts. On BGE2, for example, there were too many problems between managers. The artistic director wanted to constantly redo everything, the game director wanted to make a generated dungeon game, and I dreamed of a space adventure. We simply couldn’t agree and the game director took the project in other directions.”
Ancel left Ubisoft, Beyond Good and Evil 2’s development, and the games industry as a whole in 2020 to work at a wildlife sanctuary. At the time, the French newspaper Libération alleged that Ancel was under investigation by Ubisoft for a toxic management style, which the developer later confirmed.
“In the end, this is all a matter of passionate leaders who did not agree,” Ancel continues. “I believe that for some time now, these people have been let go and the project has found a certain balance with new leaders. These management concerns are of course very damaging for the teams. All this shows that indeed, it is not simple: a lot of ego and a lot of issues with human management that can clearly be improved.
“There was not a single big bad guy but a number of key concerns, unresolved at the level of those responsible, of which I was one. I have my share of responsibility and I should have defended the project better, and been more present and more conciliatory with the collaborators.”
More recently, Ubisoft confirmed that its Montpellier and Milan branches have started exploring a potential comeback for Rayman, with Ancel returning as a consultant on the project. An Insider Gaming report also alleges that Ancel’s involvement with this new Rayman project has “cast a less-than-popular light” on its development.
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