(Photo : Ubisoft / Screenshot taken from Steam)
Michel Ancel, a former Ubisoft designer and creator of Rayman, talked about the development issues surrounding Beyond Good & Evil 2.
Ancel left Ubisoft in 2020 in order to work at a wildlife sanctuary and discussed the happenings during an interview. He said that "Passion is a fabulous energy, but it can also lead to clashes between enthusiasts."
Beyond Good & Evil 2
He argued that with Beyond Good & Evil 2 specifically, there were too many problems that occurred between managers. Ancel also highlighted that there were a handful of disputes and changes among the development team.
These apparently included the art director, who he said "wanted to redo everything over and over again," and the game's director, who wanted to "make a generated dungeon game." The latter was the opposite of what Ancel wanted.
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He said that during those types of situations, the teams for the game were thrown around and were confused as to who exactly was in charge and making the final calls. Ancel added that the producer was supposed to bring order to the situation but failed, according to Nintendo Life.
Ancel said that Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot was even forced to come down to the Montpellier studio in order to get the situation back to normal. But apparently, even this was not enough and the current game director supposedly "continued in his stubbornness."
Disagreement Between Managers
He also said that he wished that he had been a little bit more outspoken at the time, noting that Beyond Good & Evil 2 is the one project where he did not question a single decision. He was also willing to discuss this with any detractors.
Beyond Good & Evil 2 was originally announced in 2008 and was re-revealed in 2017. Despite the popularity of the franchise, the sequel is still not anywhere near an official release. Ancel said that he was also annoyed when he was cited in reports as one of the key reasons for the issues with the game, the Video Games Chronicle said.
He believes that the people he talked about were dismissed, and the Beyond Good & Evil 2 project found a certain balance with new managers. Ancel noted that these kinds of management problems are very damaging to development teams.
When he left Ubisoft, an investigation was conducted regarding allegations of toxic leadership within the company. This talked about Ancel's management of the project, which resulted in constant changes and fluctuations in scope, according to Eurogamer.
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