Rayman Creator Michel Ancel Retires From Games, Beyond Good & Evil 2 Continues

Rayman creator and long-time video game developer Michel Ancel has announced that he is leaving the video game industry in order to open a wildlife sanctuary.

Making the announcement on his personal Instagram account, Ancel said "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."

Now this is lovely news for Ancel, who is chasing his dreams, but what of the two in-development games he was working on - Wild and Beyond Good & Evil 2? Ancel assured fans that both games are still in the works, and that the development teams have been "autonomous" for many months now and that the projects are going "super well".

Ubisoft also offered their own update on Beyond Good & Evil 2, confirming that Ancel hadn't been directly involved with the game "for some time now" and that the team were building upon the foundations he had laid. The game apparently recently passed an important internal milestone, with a build that "proves [the developer's] Space Pirate Fantasy and offers hours of gameplay and an incredible level of freedom in a seamless online sandbox." Ubisoft Paris was recently added as a partner studio to aid on development, and Ubisoft has said it plans to show more of the game next year.

Earlier this year, we wrote about how Beyond Good & Evil 2 was realising a vision of Ancel's from the early days of development on the original Beyond Good & Evil, so it's a shame he won't be there to see it through to the end, but we're excited to see more of the game in 2021.