A lot has been said about Beyond Good & Evil 2 throughout the years, namely, when is it coming out? Fans of the original, a PS2-era cult classic have been long tortured by Ubisoft, have dealt with a carrot being dangled in front of them for over a decade now. With a sequel confirmed to be in the works, fans had reason to think that the long wait might be coming to an end. Sadly, it seems that you’ll need to keep waiting for a “few more years” yet.
Beyond Good & Evil 2, which has now been in development for well over a decade and received a full re-reveal at E3 in 2017, has been in gestation ever since. While Ubisoft has tried to be proactive in soliciting community involvement and engaging with the fans whenever and wherever possible, the last update of any substance came in 2020 from departing games director Michel Ancel as he left the project and game development overall, but had said that the project was “going super well.” Reporting from July suggested that the game had entered a phase of external playtesting.
While these nuggets of information were promising, it’s the latest inside word from industry insider Tom Henderson that is leaving fans concerned once again. Tom reported that having spoken to some inside sources that are working on the project that the game is “lacking direction,” and “years away.” The most ominous claim of all comes from one source said that they had “no idea what [they] were doing when playing.”
On a more positive note, Henderson also reported that he’d learned things about the character customization. “It’s understood that you’re able to create your own character in Beyond Good and Evil 2 and use presets to start designing around your character. One example seen was a character that looked like a shark, and another was a panda. These characters could have your typical customization options added to your desire.” That’s something to build our hopes around, at least.
The way you wish to assess this combination of facts and rumors might vary. On one hand, you could look at these new details and forecast that a gameplay showing isn’t too far away, based singularly upon the fact that the external playtesting is occurring. Conversely, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking that would be in line with much of what we’ve heard from Henderson–that the game is likely to be years away. The expectations placed upon the game after such a protracted development period are high, both externally from fans, but even internally with the constant state of turmoil that Ubisoft is perpetually in these days. Perhaps it’s with a new public showing that nerves can be calmed on both sides of the fence.