I'm pretty sure that Ancel himself has actually made it quite clear that he's not terribly fond of Ubisoft anymore. I recall even seeing an image of him and the Rayman team holding a picture of an angry Rayman with text that read something to the effect of calling Ubisoft out on delaying Legends. He's even begun working outside of Ubisoft on other projects, I believe.
This is part of the reason I get pretty bothered when people don't want Rayman in Smash solely because he's a Ubisoft character, even his creator doesn't like Ubisoft. Sure, he's the mascot (though Ubi seems to have forgotten that, even) but Rayman getting in Smash wouldn't magically shove any more of Ubisoft's crap in the game. Sonic is in the game, no mentions of any other Sega series. Mega Man is in, nothing else from Capcom in sight. Snake came without anything else from Konami. Really, Pac-Man is the only one that brought anything, but that's justified by the game being made by bloody Namco in the first place, plus Pac-Man himself being a blatant throwback to old arcade games in general (he didn't bring in any modern Namco, in fact).
I don't care about any of Ubisoft's franchises other than what Ancel churns out. I want Rayman because (with Banjo dead and buried) he's my favorite character from my favorite franchise, which contains my second favorite game of all time.
Ubisoft probably pulled a Kojima during Melee's development.
This is also what I've been saying since the day we saw the Rayman trophy.
In fact, Ancel and
Miyamoto have actually met before. Miyamoto also happened to ask for Pac-Man in Brawl...
It may not even be Ubisoft, Ancel has previously stated that he personally wanted Rayman in Smash.
I'd go as far to say that Ancel himself pulled a literal Kojima, except he went to Miyamoto who in turn went to Sakurai.