When will we get to see new Rayman, realistically?

[PluMGMK]

There was blame on both sides, I'm sure, but there was still no call for the initial post whatsoever. If I remember it correctly

[Ray502]

Expect disappointment and you'll never be disappointed. No main series Rayman game until 2028 at the earliest imo. I'll be pleasantly surprised if it's earlier than that. And I thought the wait between Rayman 3 and Rayman Origins was long enough. Raving Rabbids was not a satisfying holdover.

[PluMGMK]

Raving Rabbids was the opposite of satisfying, at least at the time. Anyway, where does that 2028 guess come from?

[Ray502]

Anyway, where does that 2028 guess come from?

Setting the lowest of expectations on my part, considering Ubisoft's treatment of Rayman (or lack thereof) since Adventures' release.

Hey, if Ubisoft announces a Rayman 4 for a 2024 release tomorrow, I'd be ecstatic! But I don't want to get my hopes up on a new Rayman game in the near future.

[PluMGMK]

For me though, 2028 feels overly optimistic

[Ray502]

Maybe I wasn't too hard on Ubisoft after all and gave them too much credit.

EDIT: It doesn't even matter to me if the next Rayman game is mediocre. In this case, something is better than nothing.

[PluMGMK]

Hmm, I'd have to disagree with you there… If Rayman is to make an official comeback, then it should be something really special. Otherwise, why not let the franchise in peace?

[Ray502]

Yeah, that's a good point. I'm just so hungry for a new game, a little too impatient about it at times, haha.

This is my favorite video game franchise, and the many years gap from Hoodlum Havoc to Origins and from Legends to now, it's very frustrating. Rayman 1 is one of the first video games I ever played. It sucks seeing how this great franchise is treated sometimes.

[PluMGMK]

Well, don't forget that there are plenty of fangames being worked on at the moment!

[Elite Piranha]

The real question is, when will we get to see ROTD finished, realistically?

[PluMGMK]

Is 2028 a realistic estimate in that case, I wonder!

[ilovelums27]

I don't think it's in Ubisoft's current interests to make a new Rayman game. Or if it is, it will feature lots of microtransactions and NFT's. The current Ubisoft has not been doing great and even their current high-earning franchises are suffering. A lot of projects are on hold, studios are facing mass exits as a lot of employees are done with the work ethics at Ubisoft.

Overall a lot of huge gaming companies have become too greedy and/or toxic. Games release unfinished, crunch without any extra payment, weird microtransactions that are not approved by developers, etc. I think we as a community really need to side with (ex-)developers if we want to see some fun games in the future.

Sorry if this sounds so negative, but I'm super passionate about this franchise and game development. And I really don't like to see things go down like this.

[Hunchman801]

While I think it might be a bit caricatural to reduce the situation to microtransactions and NFTs, it is indeed true that large studios are turning towards more profitable business models, and with 52% of last year's global consumer spending on gaming in 2021, mobile gaming is the new king in town. It's now bigger than PC and console gaming combined, and microtransactions are the essence of its business model.

Rayman Legends, apparently the best-selling Rayman videogame with 4.48 million copies across all formats, as of 4 February 2019, which we can estimate to have grossed $224M at $50 a copy (probably less), is completely dwarfed by the giants of today's mobile gaming industry in terms of the revenue, and it's easy to imagine that all major publishers are looking to replicate the success of Honor of Kings/Arena of Valor ($13B+ revenue since 2015) rather than come up with the latest groundbreaking platformer that will barely cover its own development costs.

[hoodlumsworld]

I have a feeling ilovelums27 may not be far from the truth: https://decrypt.co/92350/ubisoft-bringi ... verse-game

No Rayman announced yet, but Rabbids NTFs incoming.

[ilovelums27]

While I think it might be a bit caricatural to reduce the situation to microtransactions and NFTs, it is indeed true that large studios are turning towards more profitable business models, and with 52% of last year's global consumer spending on gaming in 2021, mobile gaming is the new king in town. It's now bigger than PC and console gaming combined, and microtransactions are the essence of its business model.

Rayman Legends, apparently the best-selling Rayman videogame with 4.48 million copies across all formats, as of 4 February 2019, which we can estimate to have grossed $224M at $50 a copy (probably less), is completely dwarfed by the giants of today's mobile gaming industry in terms of the revenue, and it's easy to imagine that all major publishers are looking to replicate the success of Honor of Kings/Arena of Valor ($13B+ revenue since 2015) rather than come up with the latest groundbreaking platformer that will barely cover its own development costs.

Oh I definitely agree on that! I also see that development costs have increased for certain games, so it's definitely important to have a return on investment. The thing that concerns me, is the whole obsession with profit over creativity that lies with the investors and higher-ups at Ubisoft. They want to make ALL the money and have profits increase every year. And because of this, there's been this quantity over quality problem going on. There's a lack of creativity on the higher-up side and games like Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, Ghost Recon, and Watch Dogs all just kind of play the same. And both developers and players are feeling that lack of charm. Especially now that Ubisoft isn't even listening to it's own developers.

I genuinely believe that there are or have been developers at Ubisoft that want to make a Rayman game. There's probably been some projects since 2013 that we don't know of. It actually happened with Prince of Persia, a developer has even said that unknown Prince of Persia projects have been canceled left and right. Old man Yves and his Scrooge McDuck money pit just doesn't care. A new 3D Rayman game wouldn't be hard (with the right team) or expensive to make, especially with tools like Unreal Engine. But Ubisoft would probably want to build it on proprietary tech so that it could make the cost higher and the development harder (I remember devs saying that the tools were very difficult to use in comparison to UE or Unity), which would make dev costs also more expensive, which in turn would result in a higher return on investment projection.

I'm guessing the main thing I want to say is that I'm frustrated with Ubisoft higher-ups.

[Hunchman801]

Indeed, creativity does not seem to be the focus here. I'm curious though, are there any major video game studios (of a similar size) for whom this is not the case?

[ilovelums27]

Well I think EA is making an attempt (even though attempt might be a big word now with BF2042) to at least have some more creative focus and fun. They've made so many missteps in the past where the community was vocal and actually listened to that criticism. They've been bringing back older franchises (Dead Space, Skate), they have a great indie program with some actual great hidden gems like Lost in Random, which was amazing (seriously, the world, characters and style are breathtaking). And even the last 2 Star Wars games have been pretty distinctive single-player experiences without loot boxes. And I guess Bethesda/Zenimax is doing alright. At least it feels like the separate studios have a great consistent output. Doom Eternal and Prey were good! But those are my opinions in comparison to Ubisoft. So short answer is: yeah a majority is really lacking in the creative and fun department.

[Hunchman801]

May an indie program would be a good start for Ubisoft? I mean, isn't it what they tried to do with Phoenix's Rayman 4, kind of? Then again, there must have been reasons why it did not work.

Also, thanks for telling me about Dead Space, I had no idea a remake was in the works! I loved that game, now I'm kind psyched for the new one.

[MasterHero]

There is a leak for a new Rayman project. Its probably fake, but sounds almost realistic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANbCzTTqN_M
(The forum thread seems to be gone).

One thing is interesting in particular: The game should be connected to the cartoon somehow.
This cross marketing sounds very much like something ubisoft would go for.

Even if it would be true, it doesn't have to be a bad thing. Like when the POP movie came out, the new released POP game wasn't so close to the movie....

I also don't' like the Rayman design from the cartoon and the incrediballs in genreal are somewhat toxic. Remember: They were basically only created to have something in Rayman Advestures to spend money for (In the end you do all these purchases to get these creatures faster).

[Dancaa]

Would love for that to be true but I’m not gonna hold my breath. I don’t trust random forum leaks.