In June, on the eve of the release of Beyond Good and Evil – 20th Anniversary EditionPublisher Ubisoft has made a surprising announcement: the sequel to this game, Beyond Good and Evil 2was still in development, the company said. This was the first official update to the sequel, which has been in the works for 17 years, since 2021.
To show that he was serious in his desire to finally deliver Beyond Good and Evil 2 At one point, Ubisoft even put a new teaser for the sequel in its remaster of the original. Beyond Good and Evil. A new treasure hunt in the anniversary edition “reveals more about the narrative connection with Beyond Good and Evil 2showing Ubisoft’s enduring commitment to the franchise,” the company said.
This narrative connection was quickly discovered by players. It shows a holographic message addressed to protagonist Jade by Dakini, Jade’s mother figure and the captain of the space pirate ship Gada. In addition to the heartfelt recording, Dakini presents Jade with a number of artifacts related to the characters that will appear in Beyond Good and Evil 2 — a prequel to the original game.
Collectibles include a Dakini compass, a chimp pirate Knox knife, a Gada engineer Callum chess piece, pilot Yaashan goggles and a Chief Medical Officer Uma dreamcatcher. These characters, who have all been seen in Beyond Good and Evil 2The 2018 theatrical trailer — gets extra color in a series of media discs that Jade can collect upon its 20th anniversary release.
This new content seems to confirm that Ubisoft plans to stick to the previously revealed cast and setting of Beyond Good and Evil 2which has had a series of ups and downs during its absurdly long development. That the version of Beyond Good and Evil 2 Whether it will ultimately be the vast, open-world, single-player and co-op shared universe that was previously promised – or something more modest – remains to be seen.
But for a reminder of how we got here and what Ubisoft has said about it Beyond Good and Evil 2 Over the past decade and a half, read on for a brief history of the game’s development.
Beyond Good and Evil 2 The first teaser for this game dates back to 2007, when then-game director Michel Ancel teased a sequel in the pages of Nintendo Power. “I’m currently working on a game that means a lot to me,” Ancel said, “where the basis is immersion and the feeling of an incredible journey.”
A year later, Ancel himself would later announce the project, telling French publication JeuxVideo: “I worked on Beyond Good and Evil 2. We have been in pre-production for a year. (…) But for now, it is at the draft stage. Ubisoft has not yet given its approval.
Ubisoft has released the first official preview of Beyond Good and Evil 2 at its Ubidays ’08 event, announcing the return of the characters Jade and Pey’j, but without explicitly naming the game as a sequel to Beyond Good and EvilThe trailer was described by Ubisoft as representative of the graphical fidelity of current-generation consoles: PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
A year after the sequel was officially revealed, a supposedly leaked gameplay trailer was posted online by various media outlets. Ubisoft denied intentionally leaking the footage, which showed a character – apparently Jade – running through the city streets and evading her pursuers by hijacking a delivery helicopter. Ancel validated the authenticity of the leaked gameplay in an interview with Geoff Keighley, in what appears to be an ongoing back-and-forth between the game director and his publisher over how to promote the game. 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 have said in multiple interviews that the game is still in development, but that other projects (Rayman Legends, Savage) had slowed or halted its progress. Ubisoft President Laurent Detoc seemed more skeptical about BG&E 2“Whether it comes out or not remains to be seen,” the director told Industry Gamers in 2009.
Beyond Good and Evil 2 resurfaced in 2016, when Ancel posted concept art for the game on Instagram, hinting at its prequel setting and claiming that the game was still in “pre-production.” Ubisoft later clarified in a Facebook post that BG&E 2 was “in development”.
At E3 2017, Ubisoft re-revealed Beyond Good and Evil 2 with a new cinematic trailer that showcases much of the game’s space pirate cast. Ancel and Ubisoft confirmed that the game is a prequel, and that players will be taking on the role of a character of their own creation. They will no longer be playing as Jade. Ancel also confirmed that the previous iterations of the game shown nearly a decade ago were from a narrative sequel, and that the game has changed significantly over the past decade.
Ancel also showed a 14-minute gameplay demo of BG&E 2 that year, which he describes as “a mix between a tech demo 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 billed as a way for Beyond Good & Evil fans to “create art and music that will be directly integrated into the game.”
“The BGE community has created incredible fan art, fan fiction, cosplay, music (and) videos over the years, so we’ve been thinking about ways to be more inclusive of all members of the community,” Ubisoft’s program description reads. “Through our partnership with HitRecord, the community can be even more directly involved in the creation 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 to create all kinds of art together,” according to Gordon-Levitt. The Space Monkey program and HitRecord’s involvement immediately drew backlash, as it seemed like Ubisoft was asking its fans to contribute unpaid labor and spec work to the creation of Beyond Good and Evil 2with the only reward being the promise of “special events and demos, and being among the first to play the game.”
In 2018, Ubisoft released a second cinematic trailer that explored the Gada space pirate crew and teased the return of a younger Jade.
After that, Ubisoft and Ancel went silent on the game’s development again. In September 2020, Ancel announced on Instagram that he had left Ubisoft altogether, but that “for many months now, the (Beyond Good and Evil 2 And Savage) The teams are autonomous and the projects are going great.” The following month, Ancel stated that he had not worked directly with the Ubisoft Montpellier team for nearly two years, and had only worked on the game as an advisor. This update followed an article in the French newspaper Libération that had reported difficult working conditions on the game and chaotic management on Ancel’s part.
In 2021, Ubisoft offered a quick update on the sequel, stating in a financial release that Beyond Good and Evil 2 Development was “progressing well.” But in 2023, the game suffered a terrible blow: its creative director, Emile Morel, died suddenly at the age of 40. Beyond Good and Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition includes a small tribute to Morel: a bouquet of flowers and a card to the veteran game designer.
The release of Beyond Good and Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition and its new narrative ties to the (now) prequel are the strongest commitment we’ve seen from Ubisoft in years that fans will finally get a new game in the franchise. Aside from Jade and Pey’j’s appearances in the animated series Captain LaserhawkThis is the only sign of life from Ubisoft regarding obtaining BG&E 2 across the finish line. But given the publisher’s unwavering dedication to games like For the honor, Rainbow Six Siegeand languor Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, there are reasons to believe that Beyond Good and Evil 2 I’ll finally get here. One day.