The Scandal Behind Ubisoft’s Decision to Cancel Wild

Ubisoft’s PlayStation-exclusive survival game Wild was announced with great excitement in 2014. However, the project’s cancellation and the chaos surrounding its management processes drew harsh criticism from former Ubisoft designer Michel Ancel, who claimed that the game was “literally crushed” by the Ubisoft Paris team, calling it a “real scandal.”

The Unfortunate Story of Ubisoft’s Canceled Game Wild

Wild was being developed by Ancel’s newly founded independent developer Wild Sheep Studio, with the support of Sony Interactive Entertainment, as a PS4-exclusive project. The game, which had a promising playable version by 2018, lost time during the upgrade process for PS5. Furthermore, management changes at Sony led to the project being halted. During this process, Ubisoft made an offer to take over the game, and despite Sony’s offer to increase the budget, this offer was rejected due to existing contracts with Ubisoft.

Ancel claims that after Ubisoft took over the game, it handed the project over to the chaotic Paris editorial team, which led to the end of the game. He also states that the problems grew when Tommy François, a Ubisoft executive at the time, took over the project. François later left the company due to sexual harassment allegations.

In an interview with Superpouvoir, Ancel said that the Ubisoft Paris team completely crushed the project:

“We had a playable version in 2018, but after Ubisoft took over, the project was ruined by a team that imposed all kinds of changes. These people hadn’t even played the game. Wild was pushed around for two years and then canceled because it didn’t match the original vision. This is a complete scandal.”

Michel Ancel revealed that the difficulties he experienced with both Wild and Beyond Good & Evil 2 projects led to his departure from the industry in 2020. Ancel, who stated that he experienced serious burnout at the end of 2019, said, “My family life was very affected by this situation and I didn’t have the strength to continue in the gaming industry because I mismanaged my energy.”

Ancel added that they created playable demo videos for both projects in 2018 and that he would be happy to share them.

The cancellation of Wild continues to be cited as an example of managerial failure in the gaming industry. Although the project ended before meeting the expectations of the players, it managed to leave a mark on the gaming world with Michel Ancel’s other works in the industry.

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