Michel Ancel Leaves Gaming, Production on Beyond Good & Evil 2 and WiLD Continues

Michel Ancel, the creative mind behind Beyond Good & Evil and Rayman, is retiring from the gaming industry. He’s taking leave after more than 30 years in the business to focus on another passion–wildlife. As far as his gaming-related projects are concerned–Beyond Good & Evil 2 and WiLD–Ancel assures they’re in good hands and “going super well.”

Ancel announced the news on his personal Instagram page, telling fans that his newest endeavor is centered around a wildlife sanctuary. The designer further notes that he hasn’t been involved with either Beyond Good & Evil 2 or WiLD for “many months.” Apparently, things are still progressing well without him at the helm.

See Ancel’s Instagram post below, complete with a short clip of a very stealthy little creature:

 

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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

committed to remaining true to this vision.

Ubisoft released a statement of its own about Ancel’s departure, additionally offering an update on Beyond Good & Evil 2’s development. The message from BGE2‘s Senior Producer Guillaume Brunier reiterates that Ancel left the project several months ago. However, the team is “committed to remaining true to this vision.”

With regards to the sequel’s overall progression, thus far, Brunier adds,

The team’s collective strength has us well on our way to developing a flagship next-generation action-adventure game. We recently passed an important internal milestone, delivering a build that proves our Space Pirate Fantasy and offers hours of gameplay and an incredible level of freedom in a seamless online sandbox, building upon the promise of our tech demos shown at E3.

The team aims to show off more of the follow-up sometime in 2021. Such an update will go live once the development crew passes its next internal milestones.

An update about WiLD, apart from that which is featured in Ancel’s Instagram post, has yet to go live. Regardless, his words suggest things are moving along favorably. The title was announced several years ago at gamescom 2014 as a PS4 exclusive from Ancel’s indie studio Wild Sheep Studio. Apart from a website update featuring concept art earlier this year, details about WiLD haven’t surfaced in a long while.

[Source: Michel Ancel on Instagram, Ubisoft]