In June, on the eve of the release of Beyond Good & Evil – 20th Anniversary EditionPublisher Ubisoft made a surprising announcement: The sequel to this game, Beyond Good and Evil 2was still under development, The company said. It was the first official update on the sequel, which has been in the works for an incredible 17 years since 2021.
To show that they are serious about finally delivering Beyond Good and Evil 2 At some point Ubisoft even released a new teaser for the sequel in its remaster of the original Beyond Good and EvilA new treasure hunt in the anniversary edition “reveals more about the narrative connection to Beyond Good and Evil 2which demonstrates Ubisoft’s continued commitment to the franchise,” the company said.
This narrative connection was quickly discovered by players, showing a holographic message to protagonist Jade from Dakini, Jade’s mother figure and captain of the space pirate ship Gada. In addition to the soulful recording, Dakini presents Jade with a number of artifacts connected to characters who appear in Beyond Good and Evil 2 – a prequel to the original game.
Collectibles include a compass from Dakini, a knife from the chimpanzee pirate Knox, a chess piece from the Gada engineer Callum, a pair of goggles from the pilot Yaashan and a dream catcher from the head doctor Uma. These figures – all of which were in Beyond Good and Evil 2s 2018 theatrical trailer – are given additional color in a series of multimedia discs that Jade can collect in the 20th anniversary release.
This new content seems to confirm that Ubisoft plans to stick with the previously revealed cast and setting of Beyond Good and Evil 2which has experienced a number of ups and downs during its absurdly long development period. Whether the version of Beyond Good and Evil 2 Whether the end result will be the huge, shared open-world universe for single-player and co-op players that was previously promised – or something more modest – remains to be seen.
But to remind you how we got here and what Ubisoft says about Beyond Good and Evil 2 Read on for a brief history of the game’s evolution over the last decade and a half.
Beyond Good and Evil 2 was already teased in 2007 when the then game director Michel Ancel announced a sequel on the pages of Nintendo Power“I’m currently working on a game that means a lot to me,” said Ancel, “where immersion and the feeling of an incredible journey are the foundation.”
A year later, Ancel himself announced the project and told the French newspaper GamesVideo“I work on Beyond Good and Evil 2. We have been in pre-production for a year. […] But right now it’s still in the draft stage. Ubisoft hasn’t given its approval yet.”
Ubisoft released the first official look at Beyond Good and Evil 2 at the Ubidays event in 2008, where the return of the characters Jade and Pey’j was hinted at, but the game was not directly described as a sequel to Beyond Good and EvilUbisoft described the trailer as representative of the graphical fidelity of the console generation at the time: PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
A year after the official unveiling of the sequel, a supposedly The leaked gameplay trailer was published online by various media. Ubisoft denied intentionally leaking the footage, which shows a character – apparently Jade – running through the city streets and escaping her pursuers by hijacking a delivery helicopter. Ancel confirmed the authenticity of the leaked gameplay Interview with Geoff Keighleyin a seemingly ongoing back and forth between the game director and his publisher about the marketing Beyond Good and Evil 2.
For the next decade, the fate of Beyond Good and Evil 2 was unclear. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot and Ancel said in several interviews that the game was still in development, but that other projects (Rayman Legends, Wild) had slowed or paused its progress. Ubisoft President Laurent Detoc seemed more skeptical about BG&E2‘s fate, tell Industry Gamer in 2009. “Whether it comes out remains to be seen.”
Beyond Good and Evil 2 resurfaced in 2016 when Ancel released concept art for the game to Instagramwhich hints at the prequel setting and says that the game is still in “pre-production”. Later specified in a Facebook post that BG&E2 is “in development”.
At E3 2017, Ubisoft revealed Beyond Good and Evil 2 with a new cinematic trailer that introduced much of the game’s space pirate cast. Ancel and Ubisoft confirmed that the game is a prequel and that players will take on the role of a character of their own creation. They will not play as Jade again. Ancel also confirmed that earlier versions of the game, shown almost a decade earlier, were from a narrative sequeland that the game has changed considerably in the last decade.
Ancel also showed a 14-minute gameplay demo of BG&E2 this year, which he described as “a mix of a technological demonstration of the engine we call Voyager and the actual game with some gameplay elements.”
The game’s 2017 reveal also featured Ubisoft’s Space Monkey Program, an initiative touted as an opportunity for Beyond Good & Evil fans to “create art and music that will be integrated directly into the game.”
“The BGE community has already created incredible fan art, fan fiction, cosplay, music, [and] “We’ve released a lot of videos over the years, so we thought about how we could involve all community members even more,” says Ubisoft’s description of the program. “Through our partnership with HitRecord, the community can participate even more directly in the development of our game.”
HitRecord is actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s company and website that serves as a “collaboration hub for a community full of people who love creating all kinds of art together,” according to Gordon-LevittThe Space Monkey Program and HitRecords’ involvement immediately sparked backlash, as it seemed as though Ubisoft was asking its fans to do unpaid work and contract work in the creation of Beyond Good and Evil 2The only compensation was the promise of “special events and demos”, and [to] Be one of the first to play the game.”
In 2018, Ubisoft released a second cinematic trailer introducing the space pirate crew Gada and hinting at the return of a younger Jade.
After that, things went quiet again regarding the development of the game. In September 2020 Ancel announced on Instagram he has left Ubisoft completely, but that “[for] many months now the [Beyond Good and Evil 2 and Wild] The teams are autonomous and the projects are running great.” The following month Ancel said He had not worked directly with the Ubisoft Montpellier team for nearly two years and said he had only worked on the game in an advisory capacity. This update was in response to a report in the French newspaper Share The game was accused of harsh working conditions and chaotic management by Ancel.
In 2021, Ubisoft offered a cursory update on the sequel, saying in a financial statement that Beyond Good and Evil 2 Development was going “well”. But in 2023, the game suffered a major blow; its creative director Emile Morel died suddenly at the age of 40. Beyond Good & Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition contains a small homage to Morel: a bouquet of flowers and a card for the experienced game designer.
The release of Beyond Good & Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition and its fresh narrative connections to the (now) prequel are Ubisoft’s strongest commitment in years that fans will eventually get a new game in the franchise. Aside from Jade and Pey’j’s cameo appearances in the animated series Captain Laserhawkit is the only sign of life from Ubisoft regarding the preservation BG&E2 over the finish line. But given the publisher’s unwavering dedication to games like For honor, Rainbow Six Siegeand the languishing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, there is reason to believe that Beyond Good and Evil 2 will finally arrive here. One day.
