Beyond Good and Evil creator Michel Ancel is retiring from video games

An acclaimed director leaves two projects for a new passion.

What you need to know

• Michel Ancel is a game designer best known for working on the Rayman franchise.
• He was also the director of two upcoming games: Beyond Good and Evil 2 and WiLD.
• Ancel announced that he is retiring from video games to work with wildlife.
• Both games are reportedly still in development.

Director Michel Ancel is retiring from the video game industry to pursue a passion of working with wildlife, as announced on his Instagram page. Ancel is well-known for his work on games like the Rayman franchise, Beyond Good and Evil and Peter Jackson's King Kong. Two projects which Ancel was directing, Beyond Good and Evil 2 and WiLD, are still in development per his comments.

"My new project takes place in the real world and consists in a wild life open sanctuary dedicated to education, nature lovers and... wild animals. Many of you might want to know what will happen to Wild and BGE2. No worries, since many months now the teams are autonomous and the projects are going super well. Beautiful things to be seen soon."

Following this announcement, the team working on Beyond Good and Evil 2 confirmed the news with an update, stating that his work was key to designing an "expansive, multicultural, and futuristic science-fiction world" and that the team is staying true to his vision. The team also states that it understands fans want to see more of the game and the current plan is to show more in 2021 as long as certain production milestons are passed.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still being developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, with the update revealing that Ubisoft Paris is now assisting development as a support studio.