Michel Ancel has confirmed that Beyond Good & Evil 2, the sequel to Ubisoft’s cult 2003 action-adventure title, is still in development.
Speaking during the latest episode of Devs Play, a series hosted by Double Fine’s Tim Schafer and Greg Rice, Ancel was quizzed if he was still in the headspace of the game as he’s planning on making the sequel, he replied:
"Yeah, but it’s difficult because it’s hard for me to do the same kind of game two times. I always want to do something different."
In addition, Ancel also confirmed that Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto played Beyond Good & Evil at E3 one time, although came away unimpressed with the game.
The original Beyond Good & Evil was released on PlayStation 2 and GameCube and attracted rave reviews from critics at the time, though failed to set tills alight. As such, the planned trilogy was put on ice.
Despite the underwhelming commercial performance of the game, Ubisoft confirmed back in 2008 that a sequel was in development. However, Ancel confirmed the following year that the title was still in pre-production, although a couple of images surfaced online showing off various characters.
In 2011 however, Ancel said that Beyond Good & Evil would be developed for next-generation consoles, which at the time had not yet been formally unveiled by Sony and Microsoft. That same year, a high-definition version of the original game was released for PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE Arcade.
Finally, in 2014 Ubisoft officially announced that Beyond Good & Evil 2 was in active development with the following statement:
“In many ways, BG&E is an inimitable game – it appeals to all generations of gamers and is an inspiration behind many of Ubisoft Montpellier’s past and future games. It’s still far too early to give many details about this new title, but what we can say is that while Michel and the team at Ubisoft Montpellier are working with the core tenets of BG&E, they’re developing something that aspires to push past the boundaries of a proverbial sequel and leverages next-gen technologies to deliver a truly surprising, innovative and exceptional game. The entire team is excited about the direction this extremely ambitious project is taking, and we’ll have more to share later, as it progresses.”
Are you looking forward to Beyond Good & Evil 2? Did you enjoy the original game? Give us a shout in the comments section below.