Michel Ancel has long been one of the more creative driving forces in the heart of Ubisoft, and has received a lot of praise for the revival of the Rayman series with Origins and Legends. Now he’s branching out a little and has founded a new studio.
The Montpellier-based Wild Sheep Studio is a new indie venture, starting off with a small team of 13 and working on a new and original game that they’ll be announcing soon. However, Ancel’s work at Ubisoft is not yet done, and the company have said that he will be continuing to work at Ubisoft Montpellier, the studio behind the Rayman series and the recent Valiant Hearts.
Somehow managing to overshadow the creation of Michel Ancel’s new studio, Xavier Poix, Managing Director of Ubisoft Annecy, Paris and Montpellier gave a statement saying, “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.”
There would understandably be concerns about how big a role he will still have and what this means for the games that he’s been working on of late. That new title could be a fresh IP, but the talk of being “close to his and the team’s heart” certainly nods and winks towards Beyond Good & Evil 2, which has been tucked out of sight ever since its 2008 teaser trailer. Eurogamer were able to press and get a confirmation that it’s still in development.
A Ubisoft spokesperson replied:
In many ways, BG&E is an inimitable game – it appeals to all generations of gamers and is an inspiration behind many of Ubisoft Montpellier’s past and future games. 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 entire team is excited about the direction this extremely ambitious project is taking, and we’ll have more to share later, as it progresses.
It doesn’t sound like we’ll be seeing anything of BG&E2 any time soon, but if it’s a game that you’ve been crossing your fingers over for the last six years, then this will certainly be good news.
Source: Eurogamer, Olivier Bal via Game Informer
Lieutenant Fatman
Hopefully we’ll see it made at some point in the next few years.