New Rayman ‘too big’ for download

Ubisoft’s Rayman revamp has been promoted to a boxed product because the game concept doesn’t fit download services.

New game Rayman Origins from the firm’s visionary designer Michel Ancel was conceived and first announced as a digital download title.

But at E3 last week, the firm demoed the game and confirmed it was actually heading to retail as a boxed product for PS3, 360 and Wii this Christmas.

That’s because, Ancel told MCV, the game’s core concept was simply too much for the proposed episodic download model.

We moved to a boxed product because of the way that the Rayman franchise works,” he said.

In a Rayman game, you get all your powers and go back and revisit areas. It is like Zelda in that regard. And that format just isn’t compatible with an episodic download model.

We didn’t want people to feel obliged to download each episode. So the structure of the game drove us to the boxed game.”

Plus, he added, Rayman fans practically begged for a boxed game.

The title rolls out this year to celebrate ten years of the character, which also spawned the successful Rabbids franchise.

A huge amount of people asked for a boxed game – Rayman fans were demanding it,” said Ancel. Which is quite funny, when you consider what people say about the rise of downloads.”