Remember Ubisoft’s announcement last October it was currently in the “exploration phase” of a new Rayman project? Well, it seems full development has now been given the go ahead, with a recent job listing indicating the publisher is currently staffing up on a “AAA” Rayman game.
To rewind a bit, all this came about following reports last year that Ubisoft had assembled a small group of developers – including around a dozen members of its now-disbanded Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown team – to work on a remake of Rayman. Somewhat unusually, Ubisoft didn’t immediately reach for the ‘does not comment on rumours or speculation’ button, instead confirming that, yes actually, it was sort of true. “We are pleased to confirm Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Milan have recently started an exploration phase on the Rayman brand,” it said at the time. “The project is still in its early stages, and we will share more details later.”
There was a sense, then, that nothing might come of the project if that “exploration phase” didn’t bring encouraging results. But it now appears those initial experiments showed sufficient promise, because Ubisoft Milan is currently seeking a 3D gameplay animator to work on a “prestigious AAA title for the Rayman brand.” There’s also a second, slightly less specific job listing searching for a senior game designer to “work on the Rayman brand”, but it seems likely both positions are related to the same project.
So that’s some encouraging news for Rayman fans, particularly given Ubisoft Montpellier and Milan’s historically stellar output. Between them, the studios have released the acclaimed likes of Mario + Rabbids, the beautiful Valiant Hearts series, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, plus Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends – two absolutely gold-standard 2D platformers.