Beyond Good and Evil 2 Director Michel Ancel leaves gaming for good

Ubisoft has announced that long-time game designer and creator of cult franchises Michel Ancel has left the company. Not only that, but Ancel has declared his retirement from the game industry as a whole. All the while, the game company is reassuring fans that development on Beyond Good and Evil 2 is well underway.

Michel Ancel might not be the most popular games industry personality, but he is responsible for the creation of the Beyond Good and Evil and Rayman franchises. Later being a hugely popular platformer series that spawned the Rabbids alongside plenty of games itself. Rayman himself was the company mascot for the longest time.

But Ancel has set his eyes on greener pastures. Quite literally. In an Instagram post, the veteran designer has explained his plans for the future as focusing on Wild Life sanctuary work. We wish him the best in his new endeavors.

On the flip side, this decision did not come as a surprise for Ubisoft. Thus, the development of Beyond Good and Evil 2 is not going to be negatively impacted by Ancel’s departure. BG&E2 has been in development for a long time and fans aren’t quite sure why that is.

First revealed more than three years ago, Ubisoft might have overestimated the time schedule for the title. The long wait has spawned legions of fans who aren’t sure if they’ll ever get the game.

With the original Beyond Good and Evil being close to two decades old, many were surprised that Ubisoft was reviving the series to begin with. From the impressive in-engine videos shared, it’s not unlikely that BG&E2 is targeting next-gen platforms by now. The wording in today’s Ubisoft statement mentions plans to share more details about it in the coming year which doesn’t really instill us with confidence that it’ll release anytime soon still.