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RUMOR: BGE2 (maybe) cancelled, Michel Ancel to found new studio

J

Jaded Alyx

Member
Father_Brain said:
They never actually "announced" it per se; there was no press release, release list, or other official statement from Ubi confirming that BG&E 2 existed. But regarding the teaser, your point still stands.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure it was announced at Ubidays 08.
 
Z

Zen

Banned
Melville said:
professorfarnsworth.gif


Bad news everyone!

Nothing is official yet but according to this website (http://www.wootgaming.fr/article-jeuvideo-578-michel-ancel-quitte-le-navire.html), Michel Ancel has quit Ubisoft Montpellier along with another person (their identity remains unknown, they just say he is another "star developer") to found a new studio. It seems that there were some internal problems concerning Beyond Good and Evil 2's development (which was supposedly well under way). The development could be paused again, but they have strong reasons to believe it is cancelled...

On a more positive note, Ancel has also expressed the desire to get back to more "classical" games (read: 2D). He is still working for Ubisoft though, and the article states that they do not know in which terms this whole thing happenned.

Official statement coming in the next weeks, possibly during E3.
Click to expand...

Thanks professor. :(
 
G

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
Wouldn't be surprising (nothing he's worked on in depth has made it to release in the last 5 years). Still, I'm not sure whether this source site is credible or not. Anyone familar with it?
 
N

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
Melville said:
On a more positive note, Ancel has also expressed the desire to get back to more "classical" games (read: 2D).
Click to expand...
HOLY SHIT

Rayman 1 style game Rayman 1 style game Rayman 1 style game

PLEASE
 
L

Lijik

Member
Would not be surprised at all but I do not want to believe :(

I've always envisioned a future where Ancel finishes BG&E2 and then escapes from Ubisoft or he finishes it and it becomes a major success and the company finally starts showing him some damn respect. This is lose-lose.
 
E

evangd007

Member
Empty said:
seriously though, this is so disappointing. having it actually teased in the first place, the style of that teaser trailer, that amazing leaked game footage, confirmation that christoph heral was going to be doing the soundtrack, tying up the massive set up for the sequel with the change in story direction for the first game. they all made it look so fantastic, yet it's never going to come to fruition, is it? which wouldn't bother me that much thanks to the first games' sales if they hadn't teased a sequel in the first place, but that they did and had ubisoft people talk about it multiple times, albeit not recently, makes it hurt.
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You are forgetting that it not only had a teaser, but substantial work had been done on it as stated in the OP. That is likely what Ancel is pissed off about, the fact that because Ubisoft's bottom line was compromised last year by their DS shovelware selling what it deserved to (shitty), they needed Ubi Montpellier to stop work on BG&E2 and make something to prop up profits, like another Rabbids game.
 
C

cuyahoga

Dudebro, My Shit is Fucked Up So I Got to Shoot/Slice You II: It's Straight-Up Dawg Time
Firebrand said:
This, a thousand times this. I don't know what Raynal has been up to lately, if he's been at Ubisoft too. Wikipedia says he was working as a consultant for Ubisoft in 2006.
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He's working on an MMO that will be released this year called THI.
 
G

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
Father_Brain said:
I hate arguing semantics, but read this (ignore the headline):

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/877/877261p1.html

It was "announced" only as Michel Ancel's newest game. If the words "Beyond Good & Evil 2" were ever uttered or cited in any official context by an Ubisoft exec or PR mouthpiece, I'm not aware of it.
Click to expand...
Q: The big reveal at Ubidays was the trailer for a sequel to Beyond Good & Evil. The original title didn't sell that well, so are you more conscious of marketing this new title differently to reach a bigger audience?

Yves Guillemot: Each product has its pros and cons. Yes, it didn't sell as well as we expected but all the people who bought Beyond Good & Evil – and it was more girls than usually buy our products – were so happy with the experience that they pushed us to create a second game. We also think the market has changed a little and there are more customers coming to games because they have been made more accessible. So we feel that what were were able to bring to the market with Beyond Good & Evil last time will please more people this time. So the audience for this kind of game has also increased.

Q: Will it be more casual game orientated?

Yves Guillemot: No, it will be more accessible than the first one. We hope that new customers will have the chance to get this new experience.​

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/ubisoft-s-yves-guillemot

http://videos.uk.ubi.com/videos/ysdsscxr-beyond-good-evil-the-pig-chapter-1.htm

313kw84.jpg
 
robor

robor

Member
Ancel should of done this a long time ago. He's in a similar situation to what Masahiro Sakurai was with HAL Labs. It will be better for him to break away independently and finally bring all those unique ideas into fruition from his ideas/concepts vault.

I also think that it's really stupid for ANY publisher/developer to release a teaser trailer of an upcoming game and just cancel it after what, 3 years of development? Just ridiculous.
 
F

Father_Brain

Banned
grandjedi6 said:
stuff
Click to expand...

Well, I stand corrected. But it still wasn't announced in the conventional sense of issuing a press release or appearing on a release list.

Okay, I think I've split this hair enough times now.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
Ancel is a legend, and I wish him all the best.
 
robor

robor

Member
_dementia said:
not surprising
Click to expand...

Isn't it just? I mean what has Ubisoft given him since King Kong? Rayman Raving Rabbids 1 and 2, wowsers. Now he's got his next big project in the works and we're hearing of a possible cancellation? This guy has always received flack from his OWN company. The guy is constantly being held back. It's kinda like Sakurai with Kirby, yea he invented the series but now he hates the pink puffy bastard, so he left HAL Labs. I see the same thing with Ancel and Rayman, he needs to break free.
 
W

watkinzez

Member
robor said:
Isn't it just? I mean what has Ubisoft given him since King Kong? Rayman Raving Rabbids 1 and 2, wowsers. Now he's got his next big project in the works and we're hearing of a possible cancellation? This guy has always received flack from his OWN company. The guy is constantly being held back. It's kinda like Sakurai with Kirby, yea he invented the series but now he hates the pink puffy bastard, so he left HAL Labs. I see the same thing with Ancel and Rayman, he needs to break free.
Click to expand...

I don't think he hates Rayman. He tried to bring it back as a platformer before RRR was created to make the Wii launch and Ubi capitalised on the Rabbids characters for more party games.
 
N

nico

Banned
Good for ubisofts bottom line. Would probably sell less than shenmue 3 and is still even less likely :lol
 
G

Glass Soldier

Banned
Nintendo should grab him. He's obviously one of the most talented and visionary game developers out there and this would be the perfect opportunity for Iwata to expand development outside of Japan.
 
S

Shiggy

Member
cuyahoga said:
He's working on an MMO that will be released this year called THI.
Click to expand...

Thanks for reminding me. The file name even says THI and then there was that LinkedIn profile. So THI is a PC MMO, great.
 
robor

robor

Member
It would just seem really stupid and a waste of resources to pull it out this late in development. I had an inkling it wasn't the case, I think Ubisoft is smarter than that.
 
G

Gamer @ Heart

Member
Can you really blame ubisoft though?

They want to make money and im sure spending 10's of millions of dollars on a sequel to a game that seriously bombed at retail is not the way to do it as much as we (select few) all wanted it.
 
P

Pinko Marx

Banned
I'll probably be crucified for this, but I never really saw what the big deal about BG&E was. I mean, it was an okay game, above average maybe, but the way people talk about it you'd think it was the best adventure game of all time.
 
R

Rei_Toei

Fclvat sbe Pnanqn, ru?
Phew. I loved both the initial trailer and that leaked trailer that was speculated to be BG&E2. Hope they still work on it, both looked drop dead gorgeous and unique.
 
Â

∀ Narayan

Member
VibratingDonkey said:
I still doubt the game's actually going to be released.
Click to expand...
Wait for E3. If nothing happens, then I think it will be safe to say that this game is never coming out.

Pinko Marx said:
I'll probably be crucified for this, but I never really saw what the big deal about BG&E was. I mean, it was an okay game, above average maybe, but the way people talk about it you'd think it was the best adventure game of all time.
Click to expand...
I agree.
 
eso76

eso76

Member
Pinko Marx said:
I'll probably be crucified for this, but I never really saw what the big deal about BG&E was. I mean, it was an okay game, above average maybe, but the way people talk about it you'd think it was the best adventure game of all time.
Click to expand...

BG&E was probably the only real alternative to 3d Zelda's, for non Nintendo consoles.
It was also an 'almost-nintendo-quality' product itself.
Heck, all it takes for you to realize how good the game was is seeing the pig guy smile and wave his hand when you point the camera at him.
 
W

wrowa

Member
NaviLink said:
GAF, FYI : the rumour is false. It's been confirmed this morning by a legit french website who contacted Ubisoft and Ancel's studio.

Thanks GAF, I had a good laugh.
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I am actually disappointed about this :(
I don't think that we will ever see BG&E2 becoming reality, it seems to be always floating in the development hell, somewhere between "on hold" and "canceled". So I'd like to see Ancel working with a new studio and a new publisher, which is willing to actually release and funding the games he wants to develop.
 
N

nincompoop

Banned
eso76 said:
BG&E was probably the only real alternative to 3d Zelda's, for non Nintendo consoles.
It was also an 'almost-nintendo-quality' product itself.
Heck, all it takes for you to realize how good the game was is seeing the pig guy smile and wave his hand when you point the camera at him.
Click to expand...
Errr ever hear of Okami? Sphinx? Hell, I'd even take a lesser game like Dual Hearts over BGE. The storyline and characters were insultingly bad, the gameplay was a by-the-numbers affair with boring stealth and photography elements tacked on, and the PS2 version was a technical mess with hideous graphics, horrendous framerate and annoying load times. The game was about as far from "Nintendo quality" as it gets.
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
I remember the leaked teaser video (I also remember it sucking), but what's this about gameplay? Was gameplay ever shown off or leaked?
 
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