Ubisoft’s Handling of Canned PlayStation Exclusive WiLD ‘a Real Scandal’, Says Director

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.