Michel Ancel Retires From Video Games [UPDATE 25/09: Libération articles on Ancel's brutal management style]

[Julius]

From his Instagram:

Quote

WoW ! This little guy has many things to teach to Sam Fisher !
Today is very special for me. After more than 30 years, I’ve decided to stop working on video games and fully focus on my second passion : Wild Life !
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.
🎮🎮🎮 video games part 🎮🎮🎮
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.
May the fox be with you 

Haven't played any of his games, but have watched him in a number of interviews and listened to a few older podcasts he's been on, and of course seen him presenting updates on Beyond Good & Evil 2 at E3's not too long ago. Seems a very passionate and hardworking guy, and has obviously had a very storied career in the industry with Ubisoft. 30 years of service from when he was just 18! 

Edited September 26, 2020 by Julius

[Ganepark32]

Genuinely sad news for the industry and for Ubisoft as they lost one of their true creatives. He created Rayman all those years ago, along with the Rabbids years later, and created one of my all time favourite games in Beyond Good and Evil.

He was always a humble and sincere man. I think my resounding memories of him will be getting to see him re-announce Beyond Good and Evil 2 at E3 and the emotion of that (regardless of what you think of the game and where its gone, it was a genuinely great moment for a man who has been trying for near enough a decade to make it happen) and also the time when he and Miyamoto met and the latter expressed how he didn't like what he'd done with the original Beyond Good and Evil while Ancel remarked the same about Legend of Zelda (I believe it was around the time of Wind Waker).

He may have a smaller legacy than some but like Miyamoto and Warren Spector, he'll be remembered for the games he created which were genuinely great (I haven't even mentioned Rayman Legends which is a god tier 2D platformer).

Such a shame that Ubisoft messed him around so much with both BG&E and the Rayman license. The way they handled the launch Rayman Legends on the WiiU, delaying it to come alongside versions for the other consoles even though it was finished and ready to release, cancelling multiple subsequent Rayman project because he wanted to have creative control (he did create the character after all).

Still, he goes off to work in something the world needs right now in wildlife conservation so good luck to him. Will genuinely miss seeing and hearing from him on the Space Monkey streams and at conferences.

[Aperson]

Sad day. While I haven't played much of his games (only really a bit of Rayman 3) I have heard a lot about him and how he was one of the most genuinely creative developers in the industry, kind of a Nintnedo-like developer in many ways.

 

Ultimately I feel like Ubisoft as a publisher did not really stand for the stuff the franchises and games he created for them as time went along, the sex scandals won't have helped things either imo but I always felt that Ancel was a big part of the reason why there is such a split in views on Ubisoft, as both a company that makes genuine good games and a company that is just like every other big triple A publisher in the industry in it's excessive greediness and annualisation. At least, that's my take on it.

[Jonnas]

Bittersweet to see a passionate creator leaving the industry. But at least he's pursuing something he also loves doing.

The only truly sad thing of note is how much he's had to struggle with executives to see his projects made.

[Dcubed]

Rumours swirling around that he got out now because of the ongoing Ubisoft sexual abuse scandals...

Wouldn't surprise me to be honest.

[Julius]

8 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Rumours swirling around that he got out now because of the ongoing Ubisoft sexual abuse scandals...

Wouldn't surprise me to be honest.

I wanted to avoid mentioning it in the original post but, yeah, with the timing of it, it would (unfortunately) make a lot of sense if that were to be the case. Certainly wouldn't blame him if that were the case, either.

Can't imagine what it must be like to be a creative like this, to build a career for yourself, and then have the company you've worked so hard for (likely) be guilty of a number of egregious things. Add onto that how poorly they've handled things the last few months, and I'm surprised he wasn't out sooner. 

[WackerJr]

11 hours ago, Julius said:

I wanted to avoid mentioning it in the original post but, yeah, with the timing of it, it would (unfortunately) make a lot of sense if that were to be the case. Certainly wouldn't blame him if that were the case, either.

Can't imagine what it must be like to be a creative like this, to build a career for yourself, and then have the company you've worked so hard for (likely) be guilty of a number of egregious things. Add onto that how poorly they've handled things the last few months, and I'm surprised he wasn't out sooner. 

Sad to say getting out due to the scandals is the first thing which sprang to mind, which is a shame because I should have been thinking what a great thing he’s doing in helping the world’s wildlife.

I agree with @Ganepark32’s memories of him.  That reannouncement of BG&E2 was touching, and I do have a fondness for many of those games he’s been involved with.

There aren’t a huge number of people within the video game industry who get a lot of individual acclaim and he is one of them.  I will miss his input into the industry I enjoy.  Good luck to him!

[Happenstance]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-09-25-new-report-says-michel-ancel-left-ubisoft-amid-investigation-into-his-toxic-behaviour

[Julius]

24 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-09-25-new-report-says-michel-ancel-left-ubisoft-amid-investigation-into-his-toxic-behaviour

Yeah, was reading up on Libération's articles yesterday (the same folks who broke the other recent Ubisoft stories), and...yikes. 

The first article takes a bit of a step back, and covers interviews with some of the development staff. 

Quote

But in 2017, behind the beautiful trailer and the long sequence of play that begins in a futuristic city of Indian inspiration and ends with a dizzying unzoom in space, there is nothing or so little. "The videos were made by hand, in rush, under Michel's control," explains one developer. Everything has obviously been thrown away since then. Ganesha City, which Ancel absolutely wanted us to do with a completely stupid level of detail, we just came out three years later, and we've already redone it four or five times. Knowing that you have to do several planets, you can imagine the absurdity of this kind of reasoning." When BGE2 shines in the eyes of the world, the teams are only at the concept stage and are struggling with tools that are far from being finalized, such as this engine created for the occasion at Ancel's express request. But the most complicated thing is the constant changes of direction imposed by this omnipotent creative director. No decision, however small, can be made without his approval. Developers, designers, and artists move forward, preparing for the work sites by following the boss's initial instructions before waiting for his feedback. "Michel needs the ideas to be his own. He often prefers to improvise something of his own rather than listen to the team and look at the structured work that has been done at his request". Weeks or months of work are regularly swept away in seconds. "He's able to explain to you that you're a genius, that your idea is great, and then disassemble you in meetings by saying you're a piece of shit, that your work is worthless, and not talk to you for a month. He's someone who has a creative process that is based on erosion, erosion of his vision and erosion of the people around him."

A considerable amount of the team's energy is mobilized by this permanent knitting / unknitting. Surprise delays in one department block another. This volatility is not only due, according to our witnesses, to creative surges, but also to a need to shine, to always be the last to make a mark. "When he was talking to the press, we took notes because he was always amazed, he was always shining on the outside, he was inventing things and coming up with ideas that became guidelines. And it could concern points that we had been stuck on for months waiting for indications," explains a project manager.

Everyone recognizes that Ancel is in his role when he cuts, deletes, changes gears. The problem comes less from the reversals themselves than from their unexplained, arbitrary nature, so much so that the idea sets in that he doesn't want to create a game with the team, but in spite of it or over it. "Faced with a concrete problem, a leader must show leadership, but not provide the answer. Otherwise, the "little hands" have the impression that they are useless and find themselves dispossessed of their work," explains another employee who is also dispossessed. "We're asked to take on big challenges and we're being hindered, which is absurd," says one team member.

As the project stretches in length without showing any tangible progress, psychological wear and tear is gaining a staff yet experienced. Faced with a creative director who doesn't suffer from contradiction, one witness tells us that he held out because he no longer put any affectation into his work - not simple when you are told that you are doing a "passionate job". Others collapse. Depressions, burn-outs, requests for transfers or resignations. "Around me, I've seen a good dozen people go on sick leave, probably more... Meeting people with tears in their eyes, it happens often. It's the first time I've seen that at Ubi," confided another veteran. A statement shared by all our witnesses. Statistically, there would be nothing alarming for management," explains the Video Game Workers Union (STJV), which launched, since last week, branches in Montpellier and throughout Ubisoft, a company that until now has been very resistant to union initiatives. Before tempering: "But a lot of people are exfiltrated from BGE2 before collapsing and thus no longer fit into the counts". Other witnesses also state that some employees "would like to leave but don't dare for fear of being sapped at the time of the evaluations, of being perceived as cowardly". "A justified fear", according to STJV.

The presence of Michel Ancel is all the more questionable since the Ubisoft superstar has negotiated with management to work only part-time. He devotes his mornings to BGE2 before going to work, in the afternoon, on Wild, his other game at the Wild Sheep studio he founded (financed by competitor Sony). A pass that makes you rage within Ubisoft Montpellier. So much so that in May 2017, Yves Guillemot was singled out for this special treatment at a Ubisoft EC meeting. The CEO's response: "Someone of this caliber can change people's perception of Ubisoft [...]. Michel Ancel has a status equivalent to that of other stars in the industry, which is very difficult to change. It's up to employee representatives and human resources to find ways to protect the people who work with him". Two months before BGE2 became official, the principle was laid down: Ancel will remain at the head of the project whatever the cost. It will be repeated many times to the various managers who alert Yves Guillemot to the human cost of the project.

"Yes, there is a clear desire on the part of Yves and Ubisoft to give autonomy," Michel Ancel told Libération. Has there been too much of it? I don't know [...]. It's all exacerbated by the size of the project for a studio that has never done anything on this scale. The last big games in Montpellier were done with 30 or 40 people, now we're talking about 250 people with collaborations from everywhere. People want to work as before, they want their comfort zone, they lose their bearings. We'd love to work all the time on the skills acquired in the game before. Maybe there's been too many changes all at once, the size, the R & D, too many new things."

It's impossible to argue against the quasi-subsidiary relationship that Guillemot and Ancel forged in the early 1990s, when the heart of Ubi Soft (the original name of the company) was in Carentoir in the Morbihan region of France. The 13 million copies sold of Rayman installed in the CEO's mind the idea of giving carte blanche to creative people in general and to Ancel in particular. So on BGE2, "we organize ourselves so that people don't hurt themselves too much when they fall". The entire structure is designed to protect the teams from their creative director, this "necessary evil". Around the ships, cities, characters, we set up independent "squads" in which only one person is allowed to talk with Ancel. Preferably someone the author of Rayman has known for a long time. This should allow the "little hands" to be less exposed and to concentrate on the points that have received the imprimatur from the creative director. "This pole structure, I believed in it at first. They wanted to set up a transversal system, except that we remained in the mentality of a pyramidal operation. So it can't work. The poles compete with each other, there are turf wars, and you end up with an immeasurable number of managers." The device that is supposed to preserve people becomes in turn a source of discomfort.

In the summer of 2017, Jean-Marc Geffroy arrives "on a mission commissioned to serve as Michel's opponent". Creative director on the Ghost Recon license, more interested in gameplay, combat and the player's sensations than in narration and the construction of the world that occupies Ancel, Geffroy is "a loudmouth who's part of the family". The new game director has the full confidence of Serge Hascoët, then head of Ubisoft's creative team. Rather than breaking everything, he multiplied the work groups and put people at their head who had no special relationship with the creator of Rayman. "Every time a new senior manager arrives, he questions the methods," Michel Ancel explains today. It upsets. I can't paint an idyllic picture of this relationship and, yes, the team suffers as a result." Quite a symbol: the creative director is not coming to Los Angeles to present BGE2's advances at the E3 video game mass in 2018.

The relationship with Geffroy turned sour and Ancel distanced himself from the studio. "Michel, who used to be present two mornings a week, now only spends a small half-day here and there," explains one employee. Nevertheless, we are still chasing after the stamps of a creative director, which we have to be careful not to make him feel like he is losing control. But he finally called Yves Guillemot: "It's no longer my game. At the beginning of 2019, taking note of the impasse in which the project had reached after six years of development, the CEO and Serge Hascoët arrived in Montpellier ready to "kill" BGE2. The team won a one-year reprieve, conditional on the delivery of a "first playable", a playable sequence supposed to give, on a city-wide scale, a glimpse of the finished game. Ancel more or less disappears from the traffic and his voice is only heard through the IP ("intellectual property") team, in charge of establishing the universe in the broadest sense and its multimedia declinations (notably a film for Netflix).

A third creative leader is added to fill the gaps in the artistic side. "Someone who had vowed to no longer work with Michel Ancel. We're now down to three directors who can't manage themselves. Ultimate comfort..." A "board" emerges, a rather classic board of directors on such large construction sites, but which in Montpellier is perceived as an ivory tower lost in endless meetings from which nothing filters out. Far, far away from the horizontal management praised by Ubisoft. An employee: "To try to alleviate the Ancel problem, they sent us some big names, others of these "talents" with oversized egos and execrable behaviors caught up in a barely concealed superhero syndrome, all convinced that it would be them and them alone who would save BGE2". Although invisible, Ancel remains the favorite topic of conversation for a traumatized team, even if it means taking all the blame.

Ubisoft's management was keen to share with us excerpts from surveys conducted at regular intervals with the BGE2 team. Of course, there are ups and downs in development," writes game producer Guillaume Brunier. Today, our ups are more and more ups and our downs are less and less downs". "Yes, our producer is a pollster," laughs one employee. The six graphs commented on underscore an attachment to BGE2 that corresponds to what we observed during our interviews. However, how can we give credit to this "fun and friendly work atmosphere" curve, which sometimes reaches 100% positive responses? Not much explanation for the 30% abstention rate - far from neutral - and nothing about the Ancel case. "For the first few months, I answered. Now I abstain," comments one employee. When the figures were not in their favor, there was always a justification and the processing of the data did not lead to anything concrete".

So far, our witnesses are unanimous in saying that this year 2019 will be different, with everything accelerating on the production side. The game is moving forward, but it is not painless. Some report bloodshed, brutality in the language of chieftaincy, lack of team spirit. "The only way out of this is for us to accept the fact that, by definition, the board is right. They say, we execute. Where it gets complicated is when they disagree with each other. The further away from them, the better off we are." Others focus on this "first playable" to protect themselves, even if it means ignoring the pain around them. "We group together between those "not too tired", the new ones who don't care about Michel, and we cling to the objectives."

Validated in the spring, the demo allows to get the official passage in production and to glimpse a game. A short period of euphoria, showered by the Covid-19 and the switch to teleworking, which does not facilitate an already deficient communication. The revelations around the "Edito" service published in Libération drive the nail in. "One realizes that the passe-droits do not only concern Michel Ancel. Until then, we used to deal with them, today we know that it is systemic, that Michel Ancel is everywhere." While Yves Guillemot promises a big clean-up and more diversity, the board, made up of 18 men, suddenly opens up to a woman and discussion groups are set up in Montpellier. The fear of a return of Michel Ancel, whose ghost still weighs on the teams, does not disappear for all that. Even though he has been absent for months, there is anxiety at the idea that he might reappear and throw away the accumulated work. "With the revelations about Ubisoft, the sky opened up. Until then, the Ancel problem had existed, but there were always things that came before - the stock market price, the timing of game releases, and so on. Now, at last, it was going to be a priority. "The Parisian management might take the team's wishes into account. Instead, at the end of August, Guillemot reaffirmed that Ancel's presence was not negotiable. Incomprehension and disappointment with a CEO that everyone is nevertheless trying to excuse.

Michel Ancel's hara-kiri on his return from vacation amazed everyone. Most are unaware that he is under investigation within Ubisoft, following internal complaints. He explained himself at length to Libération that same evening. His departure is said to be linked to a need for a change of scenery after thirty years of playing video games. He acknowledges the suffering and tensions, but if you listen to him, they are due to the excessive scale of Beyond Good and Evil 2: "Of course, a person in burn-out is terrible," he says. Of course someone who stops a project after several years, it's a part of their life that goes away. I'm not devaluing that, but you have to consider the context of such a creation, its ambition, its complexity. Maybe that's what can be questioned, indeed [...]. But we signed on to put ourselves in danger. I have all the more empathy for these people because I am one of them." The team breathes a sigh of relief. Ancel's influence today boils down to a simple sheet of paper on which the original concept is condensed into eight maxims. Recruitment is accelerating, and the opportunity to start afresh and finally team up is emerging. For the veterans, the question remains: do they still want to play again for two or three years and "finish the damn game, because it's a great project"?

Basically, seven years of work just on pre-production (which they've only just come out of) and Ancel coming in and out of hands-off role to pick apart the team's work. 

The second article is an interview with Ancel himself...

Quote

[Cario/Chapuis] The development of BGE2 seems to have caused a lot of suffering. Some people are demoralized, doubting themselves, others in burn-out, in depression. All or almost all point to your lack of consideration, the fear of being humiliated or of seeing their job swept away by a decision made in five minutes. Are you aware of this?

[Ancel] No, very sincerely. Afterwards, it's always a cursor to put. Of course, you can sense that it's difficult. But it's difficult to sum up these seven years in what you've just said. To have things redone, that's the lot of such a creation. One is prepared for it or not, one has already experienced this kind of situation or not. On projects of this scale, nothing is taken for granted. A lot of people were not prepared for it. To say that there are moments of doubt, that the direction I'm taking is not understood or badly explained, it's possible. We lay ourselves bare: I am evaluated as "not competent", as "the boss who doesn't know where he's going". People become those who erase, those who redo, and there is impatience. Suffering is on both sides. Yes, it is difficult and there are people who are sad.

You say that people are sad, we, what we have heard, is more violent.

If you want, we can work on the terms. For me, sadness can be deep. Of course a person in burn-out is terrible. Of course, someone who stops a project after several years, it's a part of his life that goes away. I don't devalue that, but you have to consider the context of such a creation, its ambition, its complexity. Maybe that's what can be questioned, indeed. Maybe we shouldn't do it, maybe we're burning our wings on it. But we signed up to put ourselves in danger, and putting ourselves in danger means burn-out, being sad, and so on.

Have you been aware of proven cases of burn-out in your team?

A burn-out surprised me extremely, a concept artist that I love. We did trailers together, and there was a breakdown. I didn't understand if his burn-out was related to the person who was working with him directly or if it was me, or the interaction of that person with me. Did he have too much responsibility? I would have liked to have the explanation, I would have had to look for it. Out of modesty, I didn't dare. It would have been nice if someone had come to talk to me about it. I never knew if it was a clumsiness on my part, or too much of a request. Some people left because it was too long, because they were bored. Maybe it's something that could be improved, spending time with people, hearing what's going on better.

How did you experience the harassment cases at Ubisoft revealed in July?

In the medium and long term, it can only be good. I said to Yves: "You see, we're old-fashioned, we were there at the very beginning, in Brittany, and we've always been there, while the company has changed." There was a disconnect between what we were and society in general, not just Ubisoft. Functions, habits and words. Bringing things back up to standard, adding equity: so much so

Just...urgh. At this point not only is it increasingly demoralising to read about this, but the more we hear, the more and more I think Ubisoft just need to outright purge their upper management, bigger names, and executives from the company.

What an absolute mess. 

Edited September 26, 2020 by Julius

[Mandalore]

2 minutes ago, Julius said:

Just...urgh. At this point not only is it increasingly demoralising to read about this, but the more we hear, the more and more I think Ubisoft just need to outright purge their upper management, bigger names, and executives from the company.

What an absolute mess. 

Maybe a buyout by Sony or Microsoft would be the best thing possible at this point.

 

[Julius]

1 minute ago, Mandalore said:

Maybe a buyout by Sony or Microsoft would be the best thing possible at this point.

It does make you wonder, doesn't it? 

While other teams of course will still have ridiculous levels of crunch (previous stories on Naughty Dog spring to mind), I feel like that's one thing which runs across the industry - and, yes, does need to be monitored and improved drastically - but this feels just as big an issue, if not bigger. While I'm mostly against the industry sort of folding in on itself with major acquisitions, it does feel like Ubisoft are in desperate need of some other entity to report to. 

They need to sweep out the toxic members of upper management (which would be almost all of them if the recent stories are anything to go by) and completely overhaul their structure, and proven people need to be put in place. I feel like we've long passed the step where a third party might be able to monitor and improve this, because it seems to run extraordinarily deep. 

Don't feel too bad about not playing an Ancel game, and I don't really play Ubisoft games as it is (I've never seen one which has captured my imagination), so personally it's not too different: I wasn't buying and playing those games anyways, and until things are addressed (no more of the tiptoeing around it during Ubisoft Forward's, for instance) I'll probably continue to not play their games. 

[Ganepark32]

This thought had crossed my mind when he announced his resignation and I'd hoped that it wouldn't turn out to be the case because I'm a massive fan of the original Beyond Good and Evil and the Rayman series but alas it seems to be. Saddened by this but given the culture thats been allowed to breed at Ubisoft amongst its higher ups, I'm not shocked.

Definitely hurts hearing this one. Him leaving the industry was a sad point but it does not put him beyond reproach for this and I personally can't abide someone who doesn't give those around them common decency and treat them with respect.

I hope those who have sadly had to endure his abuse will get the justice they deserve and for Ancel, while the change to in work practice to wildlife conservation is a positive the world needs, I'll be happy to never hear the man's name again after this, even if it makes enjoying those games that bear his name that bit more difficult though in the case of those I can always think of the tireless work put in by hundreds of developers, engineers, programmers, etc. who's work more than shines through.

With the Guillemot family in charge, I highly doubt we'll see the change in Ubisoft that is so desperately needed to stop this culture happening there. I've flip flopped over getting Assassin's Creed Valhalla because of everything surrounding that game but I do think of the huge number of developers who've turned up day after day and worked away for ages without causing any of this abuse, who've had to endure it, and want to support them but as I've seen mentioned elsewhere, those developers have had their pay and short of maybe a bonus, most of the profit and money made from the games goes to the company and higher ups and thats where my difficulty comes in.

Totally agree that Ubisoft need to be gutted and purged of their management and higher ups and start from scratch there as its the only way for real change to happen and to further prevent this nonsense. As I say, no one that has cause abuse should be from reproach, and that extends to Yves Guillemot at the top turning a blind eye, and any and all victims should get their justice, especially in this case now with regards to Ancel.

[Dcubed]

Yup.  Knew it.  Knew that was the real reason.

BG&E2 has been such a ridiculous mess of a project that none of this is surprising at all.

Honestly? Ubisoft would be better off canning the whole thing.  This new game has nothing to do with the original, and the original was a notorious commercial flop anyway.

[Jonnas]

So, Michel Ancel was the biggest reason his projects weren't working out? Didn't see that coming, expected something dirty in his personal life, but no, he was apparently just a bad boss/director. Kinda surprised by that, but I guess that explains why it was so hard to get BG&E2 greenlit in the first place, if he could be that unproductive.

8 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Honestly? Ubisoft would be better off canning the whole thing.  This new game has nothing to do with the original, and the original was a notorious commercial flop anyway.

By the sound of that article, that's what Ancel would want, but the team working on it wants to see it come to fruition.

[Rummy]

On 20/09/2020 at 8:51 PM, Julius said:

I wanted to avoid mentioning it in the original post but, yeah, with the timing of it, it would (unfortunately) make a lot of sense if that were to be the case. Certainly wouldn't blame him if that were the case, either.

Can't imagine what it must be like to be a creative like this, to build a career for yourself, and then have the company you've worked so hard for (likely) be guilty of a number of egregious things. Add onto that how poorly they've handled things the last few months, and I'm surprised he wasn't out sooner. 

I'm gonna be honest I'm here just because I noticed changed title so I'm catching up and reading articles(i know little of the industry and ubisoft atm) but seeing a guy jump from a company during an apparently massive sex scandal?

I presumed guilt. Maybe unfair(but hell what does my judgement do or affect him here so its just a ting) but I had presumed when all you guys were talking about him leaving you were implying his guilt as well lol

[Dcubed]

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-05-18-ubisoft-has-reportedly-made-minimal-changes-following-abuse-allegations

What a surprise! Ubisoft were just paying the world lip-service, nothing has changed, and they're still a bunch of rapists & sex abuser supporters.

Stop supporting Ubisoft.

Edited May 18, 2021 by Dcubed