This past week it was confirmed that Michel Ancel, the lead designer of the original Rayman, was retiring from Ubisoft and the industry entirely. Both Ubisoft and Ancel have now confirmed that Ancel left during an ongoing Ubisoft investigation into his behavior as a manager. Accusations against Ancel include abusive interactions with employees, as well as a toxic managerial style that led to continued reworks and restarts on projects that drove employees to their limit.
Reporting on the issue stems from the French newspaper Libération, with continued coverage by Kotaku. Libération is responsible for confirming with Ancel himself that he was being investigated for his management style as part of Beyond Good and Evil 2‘s development. Kotaku later confirmed the issue with Ubisoft, which said in a statement that CEO Yves Guillemot committed to investigating all allegations and that “no one will be outside of that process.” Ubisoft added that the investigation into Ancel’s behavior is “ongoing.”
Several Ubisoft employees attribute Ancel’s managerial style to why Beyond Good and Evil 2 has struggled to make progress in development. They say that not only have the changes in scope required more time, but that employees are suffering a severe amount of exhaustion, depression, and burnout, too. As a result, it’s said that other managers tried to limit the number of people who had to interact with Ancel, apparently to protect them from his cruelty.
One interesting detail in the report claims that Guillemot himself said internally that Ancel’s involvement was “non-negotiable.” In other words, Guillemot was protecting Ancel’s continued role at Ubisoft despite the investigation. This was refuted by Ubisoft, which sent an additional message to Kotaku stating that outside of initially informing Ancel of the investigation in August, Guillemot has not been in contact with him or “discussed him with the BG&E2 team until the announcement of his departure.”
Ancel himself has responded to the Libération report, calling the article it published “fake news.” He’d go on to say, “Take few people with rage and jealousy and let them speak in the name of hundreds.” He also condemned the implied association of his investigation with Ubisoft’s other ongoing internal issues regarding sexual harassment. He rejects the accusations against him and says he expects Libération to “look at all the mistakes.”
For the time being, it appears Ubisoft will continue its investigation into Ancel’s management regardless of his departure from the company. Ubisoft’s dedicated itself to fully investigating complaints, whether they be tied to Ancel or any of the many other accusations against Ubisoft employees made over the past several months. It’s unclear if Ubisoft will make a statement regarding its findings publically, or what actions will be taken internally if Ancel is found at fault.
Source: Kotaku
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