Last week, Beyond Good & Evil and Rayman creator Michel Ansel suddenly announced that he was leaving the gaming industry. Official reason: the game designer wanted to focus on his other hobby. But, apparently, there was another motive.
The French edition of Liberation published an investigation that translated in English one of the ResetEra users. And we chose the main thing from it.
The developer is accused of being toxic to subordinates. According to employees at Ubisoft Montpellier, his behavior in meetings and in one-on-one communication was very different.
He can tell you that you are a genius, that your idea is great. And then smash you on the fly, saying that you are a piece of shit, and your job is trash. And not talking to you for a month.
The problems with work on Beyond Good & Evil 2 arose precisely because of Michel, since all aspects of production were tied to him. Not a single decision (even the most insignificant) was made without his approval.
Moreover, the vector of development of the game was constantly changing. The Almighty Creative Director preferred to improvise, ignoring the team’s opinion. Weeks and months of work went to waste in seconds.
In addition, the project’s enormous ambitions were created by the difficulties. As an example, it took the team about three years to create the city of Ganesha “with a completely stupid level of detail” – and it had to be redone three or four times.
Knowing that you have to do a few planets, one can imagine the absurdity of this kind of ambition.
Due to stress and overwork, people have health problems. Some, against the background of this, left the company, while others were afraid that they would be considered cowards.
Michel Ansel had a special position at Ubisoft. So, he was engaged in the new Beyond Good & Evil part-time, because he had another, no less ambitious project, which was funded by Sony – WiLD.
And the management openly called him a superstar and was ready to keep him at the head of BG & E2 at any cost.
In the summer of 2017, the game acquired another creative director, Jean-Marc Geffroy, who previously worked on Ghost Recon and was most interested in the gameplay. At the same time, Ansel was betting on storytelling and plot.
Relations between the creative leaders did not work out, and therefore Michel stepped back from the development. If earlier he was present in the studio several days a week in the mornings, then after the appointment of Geffroy – at most half a day.
At the beginning of 2019, the creators of Beyond Good & Evil called the head of Ubisoft, Yves Guillemot, with the words: “This is no longer my game.” Then the management was ready to cancel the sequel, but the team received a reprieve in the year for which they had to submit a vertical slice of the game.
Since then, Michel Ansel did not actually take part in the development of BG & E2, but development has finally continued – with another creative director. Fortunately, the promised demo was tested and the guide allowed the game to be completed.
However, the employees of Ubisoft Montpellier were worried to the last that Michel Ansel could return to the project and throw out the work again. And then the game director made “hara-kiri”: about leaving, which impressed everyone in general. As it turned out, at the same time, the company was conducting an internal investigation into his activities due to numerous complaints.
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Dmitry Kinsky | 18.09.2020
He entered the industry in 1990.
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