Michel Ancel is stepping away from video games to work with wildlife

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is going ‘super well’

Fans have gotten into the habit of combing through Michel Ancel’s Instagram posts for tidbits about the state of Beyond Good and Evil 2 and Wild, but today, instead of a new piece of artwork or a screenshot, they found a bittersweet surprise. After more than 30 years in the video game industry, he’s leaving it.

Alongside a clip of a very cute (and very sneaky) fox, Ancel said he “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 wildlife open sanctuary dedicated to education, nature lovers, and … wild animals.”

The creator of Rayman has stepped out amid multiple high-profile, company-wide scandals at Ubisoft.

Ancel didn’t comment on the state of the company, but he did put a positive spin on the future of Beyond Good and Evil 2 and Wild: “the teams are autonomous and the projects are going super well.”

For its part, Ubisoft wrote in a blog post today that Ancel “hasn’t been directly involved in BG&E2 for some time now, as the team have been hard at work building on top of the solid creative foundation he helped shape.” The company is “ramping up” with Ubisoft Paris and “aiming to share more and show you the game in action sometime next year, once we pass our next internal production milestones.”

Wild Sheep Studio, the creator of Wild, hasn’t commented on Ancel’s departure yet.

To be frank, it’s easy to be skeptical of both of these games – for different reasons – but I hope they turn out well. They’ve both been such a long time coming. As for Ancel, he’s about to live his best life.

michelancel [Instagram]
An Update on Beyond Good & Evil 2 [Ubisoft]