Rayman remake rumor - confirmed by Ubisoft!

[Greengoop]

Switch is definitely on the road to becoming the best selling games console of all time. PS4/5 have a total sales of something like 150 million so they will be a smart market to aim for, but, if they want money, why don’t they just remaster all 3 games!

[Master]

At the end of the day, UbiSoft is a publically traded corporation, they're beholden to their shareholders who I suspect would likely be expecting a higher amount of profits. Developing remasters might not be the most intense developmentwise, but it's still something that you'd have to allocate resources to, and then marketing and publishing costs.

I suspect to UbiSoft and those it's accountable to, the more compelling argument is whether they'd get a greater return (i.e. money made back) on putting in all that resource towards making remasters, versus putting it towards one of their "blockbuster" franchises where there's more resource allocated overall. If they get more return per resource for the "blockbuster" than they would for remasters, then to them it'd make sense to put them there.

Put simply, it's not just about money, it's about how much money you can get. I suppose you can make all the Rayman games you want, but if you can put those developers towards an Assassins Creed or a Far Cry that makes an substantially greater amount of money...then why bother? For the record I don't agree with this, I think diversification and having various series is good, and we're seeing the consequences of milking and trying to ever increase scope across the entirety of the industry what with the dire straits the AAA space is in. But I think therein lies the issue, we've lost a lot of smaller scale games at this point in time as resources are put towards bigger and bigger games made by multiple studios.

[The Jonster]

Much as I'm not keen on the idea, it would fit precedent considering BG&E also had a HD port before it had the remaster. Rayman 3's already had a HD port and its initial release was around the same time so the remaster route again would make sense.

I'm not 100% sure how I'd feel about that. Rayman 3 does look fairly decent and overhauled lighting and textures probably would do the job, but I'd like something a little more comprehensive.

I haven't really heard good things about the HD port. If this really becomes a Rayman 3 remake I hope it turns out alright.

[Greengoop]

I wouldn’t want a full on “hyperrealistic” remake of Rayman 3, but I think they could do better than the 2012 port easily

[Master]

Much as I'm not keen on the idea, it would fit precedent considering BG&E also had a HD port before it had the remaster. Rayman 3's already had a HD port and its initial release was around the same time so the remaster route again would make sense.

I'm not 100% sure how I'd feel about that. Rayman 3 does look fairly decent and overhauled lighting and textures probably would do the job, but I'd like something a little more comprehensive.

I haven't really heard good things about the HD port. If this really becomes a Rayman 3 remake I hope it turns out alright.

I think "good things" and "port" is usually a pair of words that don't tend to mix when it comes to Rayman games alas. If memory serves there was a softlock bug in there as well...I have similar hopes if they go down the remake route, though remake would imply that they'd be well...doing it from a more fundamental level so I'd hope they'd engineer it from the ground up to not be buggy. But I suspect as BG&E was a remaster, that would imply they'd be using the same engine but re-engineered somewhat to support better visuals. That doesn't guarantee that it won't be buggy, but hopefully that does mean that there's at least some scope there to ensure the engine works properly on modern systems, so if that is what happens with Rayman 3, then that's my hopes.

I wouldn’t want a full on “hyperrealistic” remake of Rayman 3, but I think they could do better than the 2012 port easily

I think outside of concepts on YouTube, that sorta thing doesn't tend to happen much with remakes in practice, though they do tend to switch art-styles. I...tend to be in two minds about this, artstyles and presentation do tend to form an inherent part of a game's visual identity, so a change in artstyle can drastically change how a game comes across. I think Rayman 3 is modern enough that its artstyle can still stand on its own, with a few touch-ups here and there, but whether or not a remake team would try to remain faithful to it, or end up taking some excessive liberties, well...we'll have to wait and see.

[Greengoop]

That’s probably why they’re choosing to remaster it: minimal effort and a lot of reward!

[Master]

"Lot of reward" remains to be seen. The Rayman fanbase might be very loud, but its the money that truly talks at the end of the day.

[Rsandee]

That’s probably why they’re choosing to remaster it: minimal effort and a lot of reward!

Can't wait to unbox my epic level lootboxes that I had to play the seasonal battle pass for and that gaming whales can just buy in the Ubisoft online store. Maybe I will unlock the Uglette Globox skin if I try hard enough!

But in all seriousness I think a new Rayman game is more good news than bad, even though it's Ubisoft's last dying breath before they go bankrupt.

[Greengoop]

I think the day Ubisoft will go bankrupt will be both incredibly happy and incredibly tragic, as it might mean no new rayman ever again

[Rsandee]

I think the day Ubisoft will go bankrupt will be both incredibly happy and incredibly tragic, as it might mean no new rayman ever again

I honestly don't know, because they could always just sell the IP. We all know Ubisoft has done nothing with the IP anyway so what do we have to lose?

[Greengoop]

I think that Ubisoft selling it could be a clever move if they’re practically dead, since the rayman IP and several others have been dormant for years

[Master]

I'm in two minds on this to be honest, not because I would be upset if Rayman did shift hands, but more the risk that he's just acquired by another big-name publisher that has no intent of using him (Hi Microsoft, how's all that IP you've been hoarding doing?)

[Greengoop]

I think if nobody big wants to buy him, they could pass the rights over to an indie studio to take care of him

[Master]

It's not that I don't think anyone big would buy him, even as obscure as he is compared to other UbiSoft brands there's no denying he still has a fairly substantial legacy. It's more the intentions of the ones who could end up buying him, especially in this day and age of consolidation where a lot of IP tends to end up conglomerated into big corporations that don't necessarily intend to make the best use of the IP, but still hold onto it cause of inherent value.

Guess what I'm ultimately saying is, if he is for sale. I hope it's to a company that knows and respects the IP and that's willing to use it.

[Greengoop]

I wouldn’t really want it to become property of the community though, for whatever reason. I think some people here would handle him better than others

[Rsandee]

bringingancelback.png

This picture is ridiculously funny
I hope those rumors about Michel Ancel are true!

[Greengoop]

More like I hope this project gets finished before they bankrupt

[Sabertooth]

It seems bad that everyone is celebrating and making big YouTube videos and social media posts declaring RAYMAN IS BACK when at this point, uh, nothing has happened.

[Greengoop]

It seems bad that everyone is celebrating and making big YouTube videos and social media posts declaring RAYMAN IS BACK when at this point, uh, nothing has happened.

You may wanna read the title of this thread

[Master]

Tbf, as far as anything official is going on it's effectively the following:

“We are pleased to confirm Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Milan have recently started an exploration phase on the Rayman brand,” a spokesperson for Ubisoft told Kotaku in an email. “The project is still in its early stages, and we will share more details later.”
...
“As creator of the Rayman brand, Michel Ancel is being consulted to ensure consistency within the universe,” the Ubisoft rep told Kotaku.

Which isn't much other than saying they're looking at doing something, but haven't got much to show at present. We know of possibilities based on leaks but that's all unconfirmed and some folks don't tend to put much stock in leaks.