Michel Ancel claims Beyond Good & Evil 2 development hindered by ‘problems between managers’

videogameschronicle.com:

Rayman and Beyond Good and Evil creator Michel Ancel has shed more light on the development issues faced by Beyond Good & Evil 2, blaming management conflicts.

The sequel was originally announced back in 2008, and despite a re-reveal in 2017 there’s still been no sign of a release any time soon. Ancel left Ubisoft in 2020, saying he was leaving the video game industry entirely to focus on a new career in wildlife.

Now, in a new interview with Superpouvoir, Ancel has given his view on what went wrong with Beyond Good & Evil 2 during his time at the company, saying he felt that clashes between management were the main issue.

“On some projects, we set ourselves huge challenges and take on teams with passion, but without knowing how long and complex the road ahead will be,” Ancel explained. “Passion is a fabulous energy, but it can also lead to clashes between enthusiasts. On Beyond Good & Evil 2, for example, there were too many problems between managers.

“The art director wanted to redo everything over and over again, the game director wanted to make a generated dungeon game and I was dreaming of a space adventure. We simply couldn’t agree, and the game director took the project in other directions.

“In this type of situation, the teams are thrown around and don’t even know who’s in charge and who’s making the decisions. The producer is supposed to bring order to the situation, but that didn’t happen. Yves Guillemot even had to go down to Montpellier to get things back on track, but that wasn’t enough, and the game director continued in his stubbornness.”

Ancel also stated that while he was annoyed to have been cited in reports as one of the key reasons for the game’s issues, he did take some responsibility by not speaking out more.

“When I read in [French newspaper] Libé that I was the one running the game and asking for changes, I thought I was going to choke,” he recalled. “Beyond Good & Evil 2 is the one game where I don’t think I’ve ever questioned a decision. I’d be