Key Takeaways
- Michael Ancel has attempted to explain some of the reasons behind Beyond Good And Evil 2’s prolonged development.
- The former Ubisoft director claims he and two other directors constantly clashed over what they wanted the sequel to be.
- Ancel says the three of them were too passionate about the game. Ubisoft continues to claim it’s still actively being worked on.
Beyond Good & Evil 2 has officially been in development longer than any other triple-A game in history. Every time it’s assumed the project has been scrapped, someone from Ubisoft pops up to confirm otherwise. Now Michel Ancel, a former Ubisoft director who worked on the maligned sequel for more than a decade, has revealed some of the reasons why almost 20 years later, Beyond Good And Evil 2 still hasn’t been released.
Ancel went into detail about his time working on the Beyond Good And Evil sequel with French site SuperPouvoir (thanks, Eurogamer). As for some of the reasoning behind why the game has been in development hell for longer than any other game in history, the dev pins most of the blame on three people, one of them being himself.
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Ancel explained that he dreamed of the follow-up to Beyond Good And Evil being a space adventure which – mild spoilers for a more than 20-year-old game dead ahead – makes a lot of sense considering how the first game ended. Then again, Beyond Good And Evil 2 has been marketed as a prequel to the first game throughout its development, so maybe not.
Beyond Good And Evil 2 Has Been In Development Since At Least 2007
Turns Out Too Much Passion Is To Blame For That, Apparently
While Ancel pulled for the sequel to be set in space, he claims the game’s director was focused on it having generated dungeons. As if those clashing ideas weren’t enough to slow things down, Ancel added that the game’s art director supposedly kept demanding they redo everything over and over again. In an attempt to explain the situation in as friendly a way as possible, Ancel chalked up the clashing of ideas, and thus the prolonged development of Beyond Good And Evil 2, to him and his fellow directors being too passionate.
Ancel goes on to say that while the three of them argued over which direction they should go, the rest of the team at Ubisoft Montpellier was effectively left to stand and watch. Not only was it unclear to the directors which of them had the final say, but the team working with them on the game didn’t know who was in charge either and hence didn’t know whose lead to follow.
Ancel eventually left Ubisoft in 2020 just days before he was accused of harboring a toxic work environment at the studio. The former Ubisoft director also touched on his time working on Wild, a canceled project his independent studio Wild Sheep had been working on with Ubisoft until its cancelation in 2021. Ancel claims PlayStation offered double Ubisoft’s budget for Wild’s publishing rights, but the offer was turned down.
Beyond Good and Evil 2 is the long-awaited follow-up to the 2003 hit action-adventure game from Ubisoft. Intended to be a prequel, the player character will be customizable from the start.