As you can’t have failed to notice, Ubisoft recently dealt a double blow to Nintendo and its Wii U-owning fans by announcing that Rayman Legends is now not only a multiformat title, but is also releasing in September. This includes the Wii U version, which is 100% complete and was originally due to first hit shelves late this month. Ubisoft’s official Facebook page was, and continues to be, flooded with thousands of angry comments from people not best pleased with the Wii U version’s delay. Shortly after this began, comments allegedly from an ex-member of the Rayman Legends development team came to lightdetailing his/her frustrations. Now, things have taken an even more embarrassing turn for the traditionally Nintendo-friendly publisher.
Rayman’s papa and high-profile developer Michel Ancel has posed with various Rayman Legends developers protesting the delay, and calling for the Wii U release to be brought back forward. The makeshift banner in the photos, published by Eurogamer (and translated by their sister site Eurogamer.fr) carries a slogan which translates as ‘Release Rayman. Support Ubi[soft] Montpellier’. It’s unusual for a development studio to so publicly protest the actions of their publisher; indeed, it’s questionable whether they would have dared to at all without the support of Ancel, who is himself one of Ubisoft’s major assets in a way.
Ubisoft’s stated reason for the delay is simply to have all console versions released simultaneously; something they didn’t seem bothered about when the Wii U version of Assassin’s Creed III trailed behind the PS3 and 360 versions (as repeatedly pointed out by the angry Facebook mob). At time of writing, Ubisoft has yet to respond to the developer protest.
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