After dropping 5 of the best platformers ever made and taking an 11-year hiatus, Ubisoft is finally considering a Rayman revival

Rayman
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

In the wake of rumors that Ubisoft had disbanded the team behind Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, another report suggested that one of the new projects those developers have been shuffled onto is a Rayman revival. Now, Ubisoft has confirmed that it's working on the return of the limbless platforming wonder.

"We are pleased to confirm Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Milan have recently started an exploration phase on the Rayman brand," a Ubisoft spokesperson tells Kotaku. "The project is still in its early stages, and we will share more details later." This comes in response to an Insider Gaming report, which suggested that some members of the former Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown team had been moved onto a Rayman remake.

"As creator of the Rayman brand, Michel Ancel is being consulted to ensure consistency within the universe," Ubisoft adds in its statement. Ancel directed much of the Rayman series as well as the beloved action-adventure title Beyond Good & Evil. He retired from the game industry in 2020, and shortly afterward reports emerged that he was being investigated for toxic leadership at Ubisoft. He vehemently denied those accusations.

At a minimum, it's good to see Ubisoft hanging onto the potential of platformers even if The Lost Crown didn't measure up to whatever the company's internal expectations are. The Rayman series is by and large outstanding. 1999's Rayman 2: The Great Escape is in the conversation for the greatest 3D platformer of all time, and the two most recent revivals - Rayman Origins and Legends - are among the finest 2D platformers produced this century. Here's hoping if this new project makes it past the "exploration phase," it can live up to that incredible legacy.

Hopefully we'll soon be able to add one more to our list of upcoming Ubisoft games. 

Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

Read more
Jade runs through a town with a camera in hand in Beyond Good and Evil
"Beyond Good and Evil's influence is 2000% Miyazaki": 21 years on, the developers behind Ubisoft's cult classic reflect on how it came to be
Upcoming Ubisoft games: Naoe targeting an enemy in the new game Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Upcoming Ubisoft games: Every new Ubisoft game in development
Okami sequel
It took 18 years, but an Okami sequel is finally in the works at Capcom under original director Hideki Kamiya
Limbo
Developer behind beloved platformer Limbo regains ownership of his indie studio, announcing that "the road ahead will be entirely different"
Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
If Assassin's Creed Shadows' delay means lessons have been learned from Star Wars Outlaws, I say: let Ubisoft cook
An assassin on the roof of Assassin's Creed Codename Red
Upcoming Assassin's Creed games: Every new Assassin's Creed game in development
Latest in Platformer
Image of the Nintendo Switch box art for Princess Peach Showtime, Ys X Nordics, Unicorn Overlord and Super Mario Jamboree on a GamesRadar pink background.
Mario Day's colossal savings on these games is enough to make me forget about the Switch 2 for now
Earthblade trailer screenshot
Celeste composer releases soundtrack from canceled Metroidvania game Earthblade, and it's a tearjerker mash-up of classic anime soundtracks and synth: "We'll never get a chance to tell that story in game form"
Donkey Kong 94
Forget Pokemon Red and Blue, Nintendo's finally brought the secret best Game Boy game to Switch: an expanded version of Donkey Kong with 2425% more levels
Sonic Unleashed Recompiled
Sonic fans are leading the charge on a new preservation tool that can help give any Xbox 360 game a native PC port
Rascal celebrates completing Buccaneer's Beach in Rollin' Rascal
My dream Sonic game is finally real and it even has online multiplayer, except it's actually this "high-speed" 3D platformer with a glorious demo in Steam Next Fest
Beebz collects a gear in Demon Tides
Super Mario Odyssey and Wind Waker collide in this expressive Steam Next Fest 3D platformer that's already an early GOTY contender for me
Latest in News
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
5 years after starting development, Neil Druckmann says Naughty Dog's new game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "still evolving and changing as we're making it"
Silent Hill f
After 2 years of silence, the next mainline Silent Hill game is getting a dedicated stream this week with "the latest news"
Original Xbox console
Former Microsoft exec says the first Xbox was killed early in favor of 360 because it was "losing money left right and center," but luckily "we could afford to hemorrhage cash"
A Monster Hunter Wilds character holding binoculars.
Despite Monster Hunter Wilds suffering monstrous performance problems on PC, it still outsold the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions in the US
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann says Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will also be about "being lonely," as if his zombie apocalypse wasn’t isolating enough: "I really want you to be lost"
A screenshot of Jordan drinking a soda during the reveal trailer for Intergalactic: The Hertic Prophet.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "a game about faith and religion," which Neil Druckmann jokes will surely get less hate than The Last of Us 2