Ubisoft has announced that
Rayman Legends has been delayed and will no longer be a Wii U exclusive. Legends will
now hit Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U in early September, more than
six months later than its
original release date of February 26th.
At the DICE summit in Vegas, IGN spoke with Xavier Poix, managing
director of Ubisoft’s French studios (including Ubisoft Paris, Annecy
and Rayman developer Montpellier) about the reasons behind both the
delay and the move to multiple consoles.
“When we saw all the comments when we announced the game would be
focused on Wii U, all of the people that have both the PlayStation 3 and
360 were really disappointed,” Poix told IGN. “So we thought it was
making more sense to also bring the game to where it was originally
from. That means Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. So we decided to go for a
multiplatform launch simultaneously.”
Poix explained that the GamePad-based cooperative experience of
Rayman Legends will remain exclusive to Wii U, while the Xbox and PlayStation versions
will operate more similarly to Rayman Origins. He couldn’t offer many
specifics just yet but indicated that more information will be coming
leading up to the game’s release.
“It’s a different kind of experience if you have the Wii U,” Poix
said. “Obviously there will be cooperation on the PS3 and 360, but on
the Wii U there is still this magic of having one player that can play
on one system with a new experience and the other on the usual game pad.
That stays a Wii U exclusive for sure, by definition.”
Poix explained that the same team is developing all three versions
(and also developed Rayman Origins). When asked about what PlayStation 3
and Xbox 360 players can expect, he explained that fans of Origins will
be more than happy with Legends.
“If they loved the Origins experience, it’s close to the same kind of
feeling but with a level of immersion and brand new settings that
haven’t been seen before. We have other features that I can’t disclose
right now, but it’s really a brand new game. Even in terms of visuals,
we built our own engine in terms of lighting, in terms of having 3D
elements so you can have dragons that fly from far to go in your face
and back. It’s a unique kind of 2D platforming experience.”
As for the reason for the delay, Poix explained that “it’s really
about the fans. It’s really about having a very interesting universe, a
mix of craziness and poetry mixed all together. We are very happy that
we can bring that to many, many Rayman fans and the more we can, the
better.”