''Wild'' is a survival game that is being developed by Wild Sheep Studio and to be published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game was announced in 2014 and had infrequent updates during development, with the game eventually being rumored to be cancelled after game director Michel Ancel retired from the game industry in 2020.

Gameplay

''Wild'' is set during the prehistoric

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

period in a procedurally generated world. Within the game world, the player controls a human and can use smaller animals to spy on others, or larger animals to support the player and their tribe in fights with other humans. Animals can be controlled by using

shamanic Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiri ...

powers - once "possessing" an animal the gameplay moves to the point of view of the controlled creature, and then proceeds using the skills and characteristics of that animal.

Development

''Wild'' began development in 2014 at Wild Sheep Studio, a developer based in

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. In 2018, 290,053 people l ...

founded by Michel Ancel from

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', '' Far Cry'', ...

. Initial plans for the game included a very large, continent-sized open world, dynamic weather complete with seasonal variations,

online play An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, an ...

, and the ability to play as any wild creature in the world, including wolves, sheep, fish, ants, cats, birds, etc. A gameplay trailer for the game was shown at Gamescom in August 2014 and then at

Paris Games Week Paris Games Week, or simply PGW, is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles in Paris, France. It is organised by SELL (''Syndicat des éditeurs de logiciels de loisirs''), a French organisation that p ...

in October 2015, where the developers released a new gameplay trailer and a film about the production of the game. Due to the lack of updates during development, many journalists considered the game to be

vaporware In the computer industry, vaporware (or vapourware) is a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is late or never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled. Use of the word has broade ...

2020: Ancel's departure

In September 2020, Ancel announced his retirement from the gaming industry but added that development on the game would continue without him.

References

External links

* {{Michel Ancel games Vaporware video games Action-adventure games Cancelled PlayStation 4 games Open-world video games Prehistoric people in popular culture Sony Interactive Entertainment games Survival video games Video games developed in France Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games about animals Video games about witchcraft Video games set in prehistory Video games using procedural generation Video games directed by Michel Ancel