Interesting old article I found
Rayman 3, 4 in the Works
The next two games in Ubi Soft's Rayman series are under way for the next-generation systems.
by IGN Staff
September 28, 1998 - Ubi Soft confirmed last week that future plans for the Rayman series are under way. Rayman 3 and 4 will appear on all of the newest next-generation game consoles, including PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast, the company explained in an unofficial statement last week.
While it's not unusual for game developers to think two to three years into the future, especially with a bread-and-butter game like Rayman (a series that inevitably will include Rayman 5, 6, 7, etc.), Ubi Soft's two-team strategy portrays more than just good planning. While one team prepares initial concepts for Rayman 3, a separate team is brainstorming Rayman 4, of which the company showed early concepts to game journalists last week in its Montpellier, France offices.
Rayman 3 is under way by a Ubi Soft team in Paris that doesn't actually include its creator, Michel Aneel (who's beginning work on Rayman 4). Rayman 3 will take advantage of the both Dreamcast's and (possibly) PlayStation 2's multplayer aspects, a major shift in the series. The whimsical Aneel explained that Rayman 3 will feature racing aspects, including possibly cars or other vehicles in a four-way split-screen division, but won't be a deathmatch-style game. When asked to further explain, the tall, bespeckled artist kindly declined.
Company officials at Ubi Soft explained that their current focus is Rayman 2, which will arrive on Dreamcast, PC, Nintendo 64, and PlayStation in the first quarter 1999. But with the upcoming systems looming just over the horizon (Dreamcast in fall 1999 and PlayStation 2 possibly in 2000), the company explained it needed to get to grips with the new games now.
Despite the lack of a PlayStation 2 development kit (which no third-parties appear to have yet), Ubi Soft's proprietary engine software enables it to create characters and levels which it can later port directly to any system.
With Rayman 2 still in the final stages on the PC, about 50% complete for the Nintendo 64, and in the beginning stages for the PlayStation, creator Aneel explained that his ambitions for the jointless, loveable character include generating a Rayman game each year, leading into the year 2001 (for now). Based in the Montpellier offices, Aneel and his team of about 20 are currently at work on a 3D Rayman cartoon and Rayman 4.
Their misspelling of Ancel's name is cringe-inducing, but anyway, there's interesting information in here. Look what they said about the development of the different versions of R2. What Ancel said about four-player split-screen vehicular racing elements being included in R3 came true in the Gamecube version.
Games journalists were shown very early R4 concepts in late September, 1998, which is very important. Ancel once planned to make one Rayman platformer a year... and R4 was initially planned to be released in 2001.
Very depressing and fascinating, is it not?