Summary
- Shuhei Yoshida sheds light on the cancelation of Wild, citing the ambitious development process.
- Wild’s massive scope led to development challenges and eventual cancelation.
- Ubisoft’s takeover of Wild’s publication, amidst an internal scandal, worsened development woes for the open-world game.
Former PlayStation Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has finally spoken out on the canceled open-world game Wild, which Sony had originally hailed as a massive PlayStation console exclusive before its untimely fate. While Yoshida’s comments do little to provide much hope for the potential return of Wild in the future, he provides some insight into the PlayStation game’s development, which he alleges was marred partly by its ambition.
Announced as a PlayStation 4 exclusive over a decade ago, Wild was a major open-world project from Wild Sheep Studio and the mind of Michael Ancel, creator of the popular platformer series Rayman, before its inevitable cancellation after a change in management. Originally, Sony itself was pegged to publish the game as a first-party exclusive, but Ubisoft later took over publication instead amid a shift in management.
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Shuhei Yoshida, the former president of PlayStation Studios, spoke to the online media outlet MinnMax in a recent interview and provided a brief bit of insight regarding the development process for Wild. According to Yoshida, Wild was a hugely ambitious game, with some early iterations even proposing an open-world map the size of Europe, a trait which he believes contributed to the continuous development issues that led to its eventual cancelation.
Former PlayStation Boss Breaks Silence on Wild
Wild was reportedly aiming to be one of the biggest PlayStation games ever, rivaling the likes of Horizon Zero Dawn, but Yoshida claimed that some of Wild Sheep’s ideas were difficult to implement properly or too ambitious to fit within the game. He did not go into much detail about these ambitious concepts or how they may have materialized in the game, however, leaving a wide array of mysteries surrounding Wild that have yet to be uncovered.
Michael Ancel, who served as the lead developer on the game, previously commented on Wild’s cancelation, alleging that Ubisoft’s handling of the title caused it to flounder in development in much the same way as Beyond Good and Evil 2, which still has yet to see release. While Sony was originally meant to handle publication for the game, Ubisoft stepped in partway through to take over, putting the Wild team under all-new management.
When Ubisoft took over publication for Wild, it was undergoing a major media scandal following allegations of sexual harassment, which led to a corporate restructure, an event that Ancel claims made the game’s already troublesome situation even worse. Ubisoft has continued to face turmoil ever since, with some of its recent games failing to meet sales expectations and Assassin’s Creed Shadows facing two separate delays in a matter of months as the company works to win back fans and investors.
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