I think it’s safe to say that Michel Ancel has been through some crap when it comes to Beyond Good & Evil.
The creator of the cult 2003 adventure hit has been trying to get a sequel made for what feels like forever. We first reported on Beyond Good & Evil 2 in 2008 when it was little more than concept art and a cinematic trailer, and in the nine years since we’ve seen… not much else.
Indeed, the fate of the game was so mired in secrecy — and as the years tallied, appeared more and more like vapourware — that I wrote a story in April 2016 basically saying “abandon all hope” when it came to the prospect of ever playing Beyond Good & Evil 2.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/06/a-list-of-times-ubisoft-has-said-beyond-good-evil-2is-still-happening/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/u933vsiqqhwblhvxjujb.jpg” title=”A List Of Times Ubisoft Has Said Beyond Good & Evil 2 Is Still Happening” excerpt=”Last week at E3, Beyond Good & Evil 2 once again made headlines thanks to a comment by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. ‘Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still happening,’ gaming sites declared.”]
Yet here we are a year later, and there’s a new trailer. One radically different from that original almost a decade ago, suggesting that the game has been entirely retooled in the years since, but a vision that Ubisoft are so confident in that it formed the cornerstone of their E3 press conference.
Now, it isn’t like this is out next week. No gameplay was shown, and as Ancel himself said, BG&E2‘s current iteration only entered pre-production last year. So there’s still time for calamity to strike and for this to never come out.
But you know what, I’m done with pessimism. I loved Beyond Good & Evil, and would love to play another one.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/06/beyond-good-evil-2-lives-and-its-a-prequel/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/gnsttybfgfkrwxe7myiy.jpg” title=”Beyond Good & Evil 2 Lives, And It’s A Prequel” excerpt=”In a world where we can actually play Duke Nukem Forever and The Last Guardian, we will soon be able to play the Beyond Good & Evil sequel nearly a decade in the making. It’s safe to say soon, right? Ubisoft just ended their E3 press conference with a trailer for it.”]
And I love, amidst all the suits and prepared speeches and slick presentations during E3, to see something human on show at a major publisher’s press conference. Like Ancel taking to the stage, a tear in his eyes, to finally get a chance to present something to the world that he’s been toiling away on for a decade of his life.
You can see his full talk on Beyond Good & Evil 2 below (it’s at 2:05:24):
Comments
6 responses to “Here’s A Nice E3 Moment”
If Ubisoft keep up that sort of cg work, they will be the new benchmark in cinematics. That stuff is gorgeous.
Still haven’t played the original, but this tone setting piece and the words on the website has me so on board. I hope he gets to follow through with it.
I played the first one and it didn’t blow me away. Sure, it was a fun game but I don’t quite get what was so mindblowing about it. The most unique mechanic I remember was that you had to take photos of certain things to release to the citizens to show some dude was doing bad stuff. At the time this blew everyone away.
Damn it now I’m hooked.
No gameplay footage yet, so lets hope its not like Duke Nuken Forever….
Wait, Ubisoft does BG&E? I was under the impression it was Tim Schafer’s group.