During gamescom 2014, a PS4 exclusive was announced that immediately captivated many players with its trailer and the first information: Wild was supposed to be a survival MMO in which we would have played shamans in a mythical Neolithic age.
There have been occasional updates to the game over the years, but because they came so sporadically, the community was puzzled about the status of the title for a long time. Then in 2020, well-known insider Jeff Grubb claimed: "I can confirm that the game is completely over. There is no more game...Wild is dead."
Now Michel Ancel, former Ubisoft employee and head of the Wild Sheep Studio behind the game, speaks out. In an interview he reveals why, in his opinion, Wild had to fail and what a shame that was. Ancel clearly sees the blame at Ubisoft.
This is what the studio boss says about the end of Wild
If you want to refresh your memory, this is what Wild looked like in the gamescom trailer:
Michel Ancel is by no means unknown in the gaming industry, but is the brains behind Rayman and Beyond Good and Evil. In 2014, at the unveiling of Wild, it was announced that the survival MMO would be developed by his newly founded indie studio Wild Sheep Studio.
In a recent interview with the magazineSuperpowerHe now reports what, in his opinion, led to the game being stopped. There was a “nice playable version” in 2018, but then work on a PS5 implementation slowed everything down.
Because there were a lot of upheavals at Sony at the time, which resulted in a lack of the necessary support, Ubisoft offered to take the project under its wing. From that point on, according to Ancel, things went downhill for Wild.
Ancel blames Ubisoft Paris
Ubisoft Paris took responsibility for the game. Ancel accuses those responsible there:
The game was literally trashed by people in the department demanding all sorts of changes without actually playing the game. A real scandal. After two years of wandering, the game was abandoned on the grounds that it was no longer true to the original game.
Ancel reports that he was not there at the time "to defend the game" due to a burnout. He also emphasizes that there was chaos at Ubisoft Paris at the time.
He cites the issues surrounding executive Tommy Francois, who was entrusted with Wild, as the reason for this. Francois was accused of sexual misconduct and left the company at a later date.
According to Ancel, Wild's development story almost took a completely different turn:Sony actually wanted the title back after Ubisoft had already made an offer. In that case the budget would have even been doubled, but Ancel continues:
Unfortunately, the contracts with Ubisoft were already well advanced and we rejected Sony's proposal. Too bad!
Ancel goes on to describe Wild as "another cursed project" and 2018 as the "beginning of the end". Like Beyond Good and Evil 2, Wild was a promising game. Ancel himself completely turned his back on the video game industry in 2020 (viawccftech.com). He had previously been accused of toxic management. Today he is dedicating himself to a nature conservation project.
Are you one of those people who were looking forward to Wild back then and have been wondering in the meantime what went wrong with the game?
