Ubisoft comments on Beyond Good & Evil 2 after 17 years of development hell

Ubisoft didn't cancel Beyond Good & Evil 2, a sequel it has had in development for 17 years, as the title stuck in production hell 'remains a priority'.

Ubisoft comments on Beyond Good & Evil 2 after 17 years of development hell
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Tech and Science Editor
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TL;DR: Beyond Good & Evil 2 has endured a 17-year development cycle marked by delays, management changes, and restarts. Despite the departure of key creators and Ubisoft's recent project cancellations, the open-world adventure remains a priority and is still actively in development, confirming its ongoing status.

Beyond Good & Evil 2 (BG&E2) is pushing for the record for the longest development cycle of any gaming franchise, with it being 17 years since the sequel to the cult classic Beyond Good & Evil was teased by Ubisoft.

Ubisoft teased the sequel in 2008, and an early prototype reportedly existed during the PS3/Xbox 360 era, but Ubisoft ultimately shelved that version. However, in 2017, Ubisoft unveiled a new version at E3, and since then, there has been no word on an official release.

Reports suggest the current version of the game has been in development since 2017, and that the creator of the original title, Michel Ancel, left Ubisoft in 2020. Despite Ancel's departure, BG&E2 continued to survive, with Emile Morel taking the helm after Ancel, only to pass away in 2023.

Reports suggest the delay can be attributed to internal management conflicts and restarts that slowed progress down to a crawl. Despite slow progress, BG&E2 has survived many of Ubisoft's cancellation sprees, which the company just recently announced, axing highly anticipated titles such as the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake.

Following Ubisoft's most recent purge, Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson reported that BG&E2 wasn't canceled, and is still being actively developed, and now Ubisoft itself has confirmed its existence.

"Beyond Good & Evil 2 remains a priority for us in the context of our strategy centered around Open World Adventures," an unnamed Ubisoft spokesperson told Insider Gaming and Kotaku