Ubisoft is looking into rebooting the Rayman franchise, a company spokesperson told Digital Trends following an earlier report about a potential series remake.
Team members from Ubisoft Montpellier — many of whom had just worked on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown — have teamed up with Ubisoft Milan to explore the possibility of new games. Milan previously worked on the Mario + Rabbids games, which most recently featured Rayman in the aptly named Rayman in the Phantom Show DLC.
The project is very much in the early stages of development. “We are pleased to confirm Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Milan have recently started an exploration phase on the Rayman brand. The project is still in its early stages, and we will share more details later,” the spokesperson said.
One person on the project is Fawzi Mesmar, who became VP of editorial at the company in 2021 and was working on Beyond Good & Evil 2. The spokesperson also confirmed that Rayman series creator Michel Ancel is on the project as a consultant “to ensure consistency within the universe.” Ancel was also originally the director on Beyond Good & Evil 2, but left the video game industry in 2020 to work on a wildlife sanctuary. However, Kotaku (via French newspaper Libération) reported that it was amidst an investigation into his “toxic management style.”
Ubisoft’s statement is in response to reports that it was working specifically on a Rayman remake with members from The Lost Crown team. Digital Trends confirmed Tuesday that most of the developers at Montpellier who were working on the Metroidvania were moved to other projects. Insider Gaming claims they’re now developing on Beyond Good & Evil 2, a new mainline Ghost Recon game, and the Rayman remake.
The Rayman series has a long history at Ubisoft Montpellier, first releasing in 1995. The last main series Rayman game, Rayman Legends, came out in 2013. The Rabbids have been the face of the series over the past decade with the Mario + Rabbids games and other spinoffs.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.