Report: Beyond Good & Evil 2 Director Michel Ancel Left Ubisoft Amid Investigation Into Complaints Of Toxic Le - Kotaku

Rayman creator, Beyond Good and Evil 2 director, and longtime Ubisoft veteran Michel Ancel retired from the video game publisher earlier this month while being investigated for toxic behavior, according to a new report by the French newspaper Libération.

Libération now reports, and Ancel has confirmed in an interview with the newspaper, that he was in the midst of an investigation by Ubisoft into complaints that he had a toxic management style during the ongoing development of Beyond Good and Evil 2.

The Libération report, which details the development hell the game has been in for seven years, shares accounts by Ubisoft employees who accuse Ancel of being so difficult to work with that other managers were eventually brought in to limit the number of people who had to interact with him.

In an interview with Libération, Ancel said he was unaware that people felt this way, and only seemed to acknowledge that the general difficulties associated with making an ambitious big-budget game had taken its toll on Ubisoft Montpellier where Beyond Good and Evil 2 is being developed.

Ancel says he was informed of the investigation into his behavior directly by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in early August, who Libération describes as being close friends with Ancel.

One employee told Libération that they thought this broader reckoning within Ubisoft would force the issues with Ancel to finally be resolved

In his interview, Ancel told Libération he parted ways with the company of his own accord and that his only regret is he didn’t finish Beyond Good and Evil 2 sooner.