"Some Men In Ties Took A Wrong Choice"
A Rayman Legends developer has vented their frustration about the near-complete game being delayed by seven months, suggesting that half a year of backbreaking crunch time has been wasted.
"If you're pissed, imagine how we feel," wrote the anonymous developer on the EOL forum [translated by NeoGAF, via CVG]. "Think on the situation, we've been making overtime with this game practically since May preparing E3, and then almost a demo per month (Gamescom, Wii U presentation, shops, eShop, etc...) and at the same time trying to actually finish the game."
"We had a first delay because it was obvious we couldn't finish on time but we gave it all to be there on February. What face do you think we had when the week we had to close the game we're being told it's not going to be released? I couldn't believe it. For us, this means we've spent six months barely seeing our wives, kids, and friends for nothing because, after all, such a haste wasn't needed. Believe it, it was a hell to swallow this news."
By the looks of the account holder's posting history, he or she is likely to have left Ubisoft Montpellier last month, after several years of experience working at the company.
"This is not a decision taken by the development team," the source continued, "this comes from really really high up, so please don't pick on the game."
"I'm firm in what I said back in the day. Rayman Legends is an excellent game and will still be, and the team that's making it doesn't deserve to have your back turned on them just because some men in ties one day took a wrong choice. This industry is really that sh**ty."
Ubisoft's decision to delay Rayman Legends until September, and release what was previously a Wii U exclusive simultaneously on PS3 and Xbox 360, is really rather suggestive. Is Ubisoft losing faith in the Wii U platform, which they recently described as being difficult to market effectively? Or is Rayman Legends perhaps not shaping up particularly well, requiring months more development time to fix and a multiplatform launch to recoup the extra expense? We'll be sure to ask, but for now, we've got a long wait ahead.
