Why clown once when you can clown again. And again...
Ubisoft's Handling of Canned PlayStation Exclusive WiLD 'a Real Scandal', Says Director
[Emphasis added]
Some final, optimistic part of us always
held out hope for WiLD; although we saw so little of
Michel Ancel's lost title, we couldn't really tell you why. We got some
closure on the game in August (a decade after it was announced), with
developer Wild Sheep Studio confirming it was "no longer actively working on it." Now, one-time lead
Ancel has dished some surprisingly juicy dirt on the game, which he described as suffering
"an unfortunate fate".
Having
left the industry back in 2020, Ancel recently spoke to
Superpouvior (thanks,
VGC) and finally
shed some light on what went on for all those years. According to him:
"In 2018, we had a very lovely playable version, but we took a
long time to upgrade the game to PS5, which slowed down production. On
Sony's side, there were major management changes, and the game was stopped."
Ancel alleges that
things really went wrong when Ubisoft offered to take it over, and then bizarrely,
Sony decided it really wanted to get WiLD back, even
offering to double the game's budget. "Unfortunately,
contracts with Ubisoft were advanced, and
we turned down Sony's offer. What a shame." Things somehow
managed to get even worse once Ubisoft Paris took charge, led by
Tommy François, who would
later be arrested after an investigation into the studio's toxic culture uncovered "systemic sexual violence". Ancel recalls that time:
"It was during this period that
I burned out and, unfortunately, the
game fell into the hands of Ubisoft’s editorial department in Paris, which was in chaos. I was
no longer there to defend the game, which was
crushed by people in this department asking for
all sorts of changes without actually playing the game. A real scandal." Ancel explains the context of
trying to create a game in this environment: "It’s important to understand that, at the time, the
editorial department was in the midst of an explosion following the internal affairs surrounding
Tommy François, who, incidentally, was in charge of WiLD."
Seemingly seeking vindication, Ancel says he would "be very happy" to
share the 2018 playable demos for both WiLD and the
somehow still languishing Beyond Good & Evil 2, which he described as "more than promising." Ancel says his
professional burnout seriously affected his family life, which is why he
left the industry in 2020. Following his departure, some
former developers alleged that Beyond Good & Evil 2 had struggled due to Ancel's poor management.