Why Beyond Good & Evil 2 Has Taken So Long
"Now the tech is ready and the team is fantastic!"
Beyond Good & Evil 2 was teased through a series of Instagram photos before getting officially revealed as in development earlier this month. The game was originally announced back in 2008, and now we know why it's taken so long for it to enter production.
Creator Michel Ancel shared a new image that showed 2008 models of the first game's main characters Jade, Pey'j, and a character who could be Double H. In the description, Ancel provided an explanation as to why they didn't continue development back then.
"The game was playable with many prototypes," Ancel wrote. "All videos were real time, but we had too much technical issues. We wanted planet exploration, space travel, cities. All this was also supposed to be in [the original Beyond Good & Evil].
"Instead of not doing the game of our dreams, we decided to return to 2D, have fun with Rayman, and go back at work for Beyond Good and Evil 2. We still have loooooots of work, but now the tech is ready and the team is fantastic!"
It was announced that Ubisoft's Montpellier studio will work with Ancel on Beyond Good & Evil 2. Other games the studio has worked on include Rayman Origins, Rayman Legends, and Valiant Hearts: The Great War. It's also helping with development on the upcoming Ghost Recon: Wildlands.
Ubisoft didn't show or talk about Beyond Good & Evil 2 much after its 2008 announcement. A trademark was filed this past April, and at E3 2016, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed that Ancel was working on the long-awaited sequel, though he could not say when it would release.
"It's difficult to say," Guillemot said. "Michel is working on it, but he's doing two games at the same time--he's doing Wild at the same time. It's coming along, but he has to spend more time on it, so we can see it faster."
Ancel is working on Wild with his own team, Wild Sheep Studio. It's an open-world survival game that lets you possess eagles and bears, and it's set to release exclusively on PS4.
With the latest confirmation that Beyond Good & Evil 2 is in development, we still have no solid idea of a release date. The original game released in 2003.
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