14 DAY TRIAL // Michel Ancel, the creator of the Rayman series, surprised plenty of its fans by announcing that he was joining a new indie studio, called Wild Sheep, and that he was working on a new secret project which would be revealed soon.
At the same time, the game creator says that he is still employed by Ubisoft, and apparently the company is keen to emphasize the fact that he is actively continuing to work on Beyond Good & Evil 2, a game that has long been seen as vaporware.
Xavier Poix, who leads the company’s studios in Annecy, Paris and Montpellier, tells Eurogamer that “We are fortunate to have some of the industry's finest talents, including Michel Ancel, working with us at our studio. In addition to spending some of his time on this new venture, Michel is leading the creative development of select projects at Ubisoft Montpellier, including an extremely ambitious new title that is very close to his and the team's heart.”
Beyond Good & Evil 2 was first revealed via a pretty impressive trailer in 2008, but since then the company did not offer too many details about the story it was planning to tell or about the main mechanics of the experience.
Michel Ancel has since worked in a leading development role on two Rayman titles that the community praised for their innovation.
Ubisoft adds, “It's still far too early to give many details about this new title, but what we can say is that while Michel and the team at Ubisoft Montpellier are working with the core tenets of BG&E, they're developing something that aspires to push past the boundaries of a proverbial sequel and leverages next-gen technologies to deliver a truly surprising, innovative and exceptional game.”
The publisher adds that the development team is excited about the concept it is working on and that more details will be offered soon.
The convoluted statement that the company has issued might suggest that Ancel is not working on a title that is an actual sequel for Beyond Good & Evil, but uses some of its concepts to introduce a new set of ideas.
Given that six years have passed since the title was first teased and that many fans believe that it will never be actually launched, Ubisoft needs to deliver a lot more details in order to convince players that they should actually look forward to Beyond Good & Evil 2.