Rayman Creator Michel Ancel Exits Gaming Industry To Pursue New Passion

Rayman Creator Michel Ancel Exits Gaming Industry To Pursue New Passion

Michel Ancel, the legendary video game designer who created Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil has announced he is quitting the gaming industry.

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Legendary developer and Ubisoft creator Michel Ancel, who created classic franchises such as Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil is quitting the video game industry to run his own wildlife sanctuary. The designer has spent 30 years in the industry and been associated with the French publisher for more than 20 of them.

Ancel has been a major figure in the world of gaming for three decades. As well as creating one of the most memorable mascots in the industry in the form of Rayman, he also worked at independent studios and helped direct other successful series. His current major project was Beyond Good & Evil 2, a sequel to the cult 2003 game. Ubisoft made a surprise announcement that the game was in development in 2017 but has been unusually quiet about its progress in recent times. However, the company has confirmed that the sequel will not release in 2020, which might be explained by Ancel’s departure from the company.

Michel Ancel has announced that he is leaving Ubisoft and quitting the video game industry after 30 years. Speaking in an Instagram post today, the designer claimed that this was to allow him to follow his second passion in life and set up a wildlife sanctuary in Montpellier. Best known for creating the Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil series, the developer explained that his new project “takes place in the real world and consists in a wildlife open sanctuary dedicated to education, nature lovers and wild animals.”

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WoW ! This little guy has many things to teach to Sam Fisher ! Today is very special for me. After more than 30 years, I’ve decided to stop working on video games and fully focus on my second 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. 🎮🎮🎮 video games part 🎮🎮🎮 Many of you might want to know what will happen to Wild and BGE2. No worries, since many months now the teams are autonomous and the projects are going super well. Beautiful things to be seen soon. May the fox be with you 🦊

A post shared by Michel Ancel (@michelancel) on Sep 18, 2020 at 4:07am PDT

Meanwhile, Ubisoft has responded to Ancel’s departure in a statement to GameIndustryBiz. The company thanked the designer for his work over the last 30 years and “the incredible creative vision he has brought to Ubisoft over the course of his career, and wish him all the best for this new venture.” Ubisoft also moved to reassure fans that Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still in development and on course for its scheduled release, saying:

“The teams at Ubisoft Montpellier are currently focusing on the main stages of production, aligned with the vision set out by Michel. They will have more to share with their community of fans in the months to come.”

Beyond Good & Evil 2 is not the only project that Ancel was involved in. He announced in 2014 that he had helped set up Wild Sheep Studio to develop a new game called WiLD. According to the dev, this is a survival game set in pre-historic times that would be exclusive to the PlayStation 4. Despite a lack of news from Wild Sheep Studio, the game’s publisher Sony still has the game listed on the official PlayStation website, suggesting it is still in the works.

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Michel Ancel’s announcement comes as a major surprise. There had been no indication that he was about to leave Ubisoft nevermind quit the gaming industry altogether. While the designer may not be a household name, he has had a big impact over the last 30 years and his presence will no doubt be missed at Ubisoft. Exactly what position this leaves games like Beyond Good & Evil 2 and WiLD in is uncertain at this time but fans will have to hope that his teams were given plenty of warning about the departure and could prepare accordingly.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/rayman-creator-michel-ancel-retire/

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