A slightly different thought just occurred to me...
There was a time when developers held the power over their product's development. They operated out of small offices/studios or even their own homes. Every day was crunch-time but it fun-time because they were doing what they loved, and more importantly, they were in total control. Then entered the guys with money - publishers. On top of forcing strict development times, having say in what content to make release date, etc, they hold developers' creativity hostage. This/that idea isn't popular, that type of hero isn't appropriate, this/that is the current trend, etc. It's easy to think; "There's no way developers are this powerless!" Of course, not all devs are, but many are still caught in that vacuum, and this Rayman fiasco may be the most recent example.
I'm glad this turned out to be a lager issue that goes beyond a typical delayed game, because it IS a lot more than that. Whatever comes out of this situation it hope it stirs up developers in the industry to establish certain boundaries with publishers to prevent a situation like this repeating itself, and at least attempt to gain a reasonable degree of control throughout development. Even if devs are still at the mercy of publishers, new boundaries hould firmly be set, realizing that publishers need developers just as much.