In June, on the eve of the release of Beyond Good and Evil – 20th Anniversary Editionpublisher Ubisoft made a surprising announcement: The sequel to this game, Beyond Good and Evil 2, is still under development, the company said. This was the first official update for the sequel, which has been in the works for a staggering 17 years, since 2021.
To show that he is serious about finally getting it done 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 to Beyond Good and Evil 2which shows Ubisoft’s enduring commitment to the franchise,” the company said.
This narrative connection was quickly discovered by players. It shows a holographic message to the main character Jade from Dakini, Jade’s mother figure and the captain of the space pirate ship Gada. In addition to the heartfelt entry, Dakini presents Jade with a number of artifacts related to characters that will appear in Beyond Good and Evil 2 — prequel to the original game.
Collectibles include a compass from Dakini, a knife from Chimpanzee Pirate Knox, a chess piece from Engineer Calum of Gada, glasses from Pilot Yaashan, and a dream catcher from Chief Physician Uma. These characters – all of whom have been seen in Beyond Good and Evil 22018’s cinematic trailer — get some extra color in a series of multimedia discs that Jade can collect in the 20th anniversary edition.
This new content seems to confirm that Ubisoft plans to stick with the previously revealed cast and setting of Beyond Good and Evil 2, which has experienced a series of ups and downs throughout its absurdly long development timeline. Whether the version of the Beyond Good and Evil 2 what will end up being the massive open world, single player and co-op shared universe that was previously promised – or something more modest – remains to be seen.
But a reminder of how we got here and what Ubisoft said 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 was first teased back in 2007 when then-game director Michel Ansel teased a sequel in the pages of Nintendo Power. “I’m currently working on a game that means a lot to me,” said Ansel, “where the foundation is immersion and a sense of an incredible journey.”
A year later, Ansel himself would later announce the project directly, 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 project stage. Ubisoft has yet to give its approval.
Ubisoft released the first official look at the Beyond Good and Evil 2 at the Ubidays ’08 event, teasing the return of characters Jade and Pey’j, but not directly naming the game as a sequel to Beyond good and evil. The trailer was described by Ubisoft as representative of the graphical fidelity of the then-generation consoles: PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
A year after the official reveal of the sequel, a supposedly leaked gameplay trailer was posted online by various media outlets. Ubisoft has denied it intentionally leaked the footage, which shows a character – apparently Jade – running through the streets of a city and evading her pursuers by hijacking a delivery helicopter. Ansel confirmed the authenticity of the leaked gameplay in an interview with Geoff Keighley, in what appeared to be an ongoing dispute between the game’s director and its publisher over how to promote Beyond Good and Evil 2.
Over the next decade, the fate of Beyond Good and Evil 2 it 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, Wild) has slowed or stopped its progress. Ubisoft president Laurent Detoc seemed more skeptical BG&E 2the fate of, telling Industry Gamers in 2009, “Whether or not it comes out remains to be seen.”
Beyond Good and Evil 2 resurfaced in 2016 when Ancel posted concept art for the game on Instagram, hinting at its backstory and saying the game was still in “pre-production.” Ubisoft later clarified in a Facebook post that BG&E 2 was “under development”.
At E3 2017, Ubisoft revealed again Beyond Good and Evil 2 with a new cinematic trailer that introduced much of the game’s space pirate cast. Ancel and Ubisoft have confirmed that the game is a prequel and that players will take on the role of a character created by them. They weren’t going to play as Jade again. Ansel also confirmed that the previous iterations of the game shown almost a decade ago were of narrative continuation and that the game has changed significantly in the past decade.
Ansel also showed a 14-minute gameplay demo of the BG&E 2 the same year, which he described as “a mix between a tech demo of the engine we call Voyager and the actual game with some gameplay elements.”
The 2017 reveal of the game also introduced Ubisoft’s Space Monkey program, an initiative that was billed as a way for Beyond Good & Evil fans to “create art and music that will be integrated directly into the game.”
“The BGE community already creates incredible fan art, fan fiction, cosplay, music, [and] videos over the years, so we need to come up with ways to be more inclusive to all members of the community,” Ubisoft said in a description of the program. “Through our partnership with HitRecord, the community can participate even more directly in the creation of our game.”
HitRecord is actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s company and website, which serves as a “collaboration hub for a community full of people who love to make all kinds of art together,” according to Gordon-Levitt. The Space Monkey program and HitRecord’s involvement immediately caused backlash, as it appeared that Ubisoft was asking fans to contribute unpaid labor and spec work to the creation of Beyond Good and Evil 2with the only return being the promise of “special events and demonstrations, and [to] be among the first to play the game.
In 2018, Ubisoft released a second cinematic trailer that explored the crew of the space pirate Gada and teased the return of a younger Jade.
After that, Ubisoft and Ancel again went quiet about the game’s development. In September 2020, Ansel announced on Instagram that he had completely left Ubisoft, but that “[for] many months now [Beyond Good and Evil 2 and Wild] the teams are autonomous and the projects are going super well.” Ansel said the following month that he had not worked directly with the Ubisoft Montpellier team for nearly two years and said that he had only worked on the game as an advisor. This update was in response to a report in the French newspaper Libération that suggested harsh working conditions in the game and chaotic management from Ancel.
In 2021, Ubisoft offered a cursory update on the sequel, saying in a financial statement 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 for the veteran game designer.
The release of Beyond Good and Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition and its fresh narrative ties to the (now) backstory are the strongest commitment we’ve seen from Ubisoft in years that fans will eventually get a new game in the franchise. Outside of Jade and Paige’s cameos in the animated series Captain Laserhawkthis is the only sign of life from Ubisoft in terms of getting it BG&E 2 over the finish line. But given the staunch dedication of game publisher like For honor, Rainbow Six Siegeand exhaustion Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, there’s reason to believe so Beyond Good and Evil 2 it will finally get here. Someday.
