Why Beyond Good & Evil 2 is missing this generation

Michel Ancel talks about the scope of Beyond Good & Evil 2 and why those ambitious plans have pushed it to the next generation.

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We haven't seen hide nor hair of Beyond Good & Evil 2 since its announcement in 2008, but with every cancellation scare Ubisoft keeps assuring us it's still alive. Fans might still be hoping to play it sometime in this generation, but Ubisoft has moved away from that goal and is now talking about ambitious plans for future consoles. A new interview sheds some light on exactly what the company wants out of the sequel.

"We've been working on it for a long time, but we've had some technical issues," Ubisoft's Michel Ancel told GamesRadar. "The first Beyond Good & Evil, when I sent the technical document to Sony, it was the time of the Emotion Engine on the PlayStation 2. We had the feeling that we could do whatever we wanted. We sent them the document, it was about planets, going from planet to planet, towns to towns and all these things. But in the end, what we were really about to do was far less than what we wanted."

Ancel says it was "frustrating" not being able to planet-hop in the first game, and they want its sequel to have that scope. "And my thing is that we really want to make the game that was previously imagined, with all this feeling of traveling," he said. "Mass Effect did a good job on that side, and I think that there are a lot of things to do to continue in that direction, with storytelling and a massive world."

When asked point-blank if that's why it will miss this generation, Ancel answered, "Yeah, yeah. That’s the reason."

While citing Mass Effect seems like we could see the game this generation, we're not sure exactly how much scope Ancel has in mind, or how far BG&E2 is in development. We still haven't really seen the game itself, and we're probably coming to the end of the current console generation, so ever-patient Jade fans will have to wait at least a little longer.

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  • reply
    September 30, 2011 8:00 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Why Beyond Good & Evil 2 is missing this generation.

    Michel Ancel talks about the scope of Beyond Good & Evil 2 and why those ambitious plans have pushed it to the next generation.

    • reply
      September 30, 2011 8:10 AM

      Did they ever fix the can't invert look problem on the XBLA version of the first game? I haven't bought it yet because of that.

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        September 30, 2011 8:12 AM

        Same here. There's always something stopping me from playing this game.

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      September 30, 2011 9:15 AM

      I'd like to kick anyone who stands in the way of the development for BG&E right in the face.

      /looks at Sony, I guess.

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        September 30, 2011 9:35 AM

        What...how did you get "Sony stopping BG&E development" from this article?

        If anything, beat up the developers themselves, who can't seem to find some one to make their game work in the current PC/Console generation.

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          September 30, 2011 2:26 PM

          Because Sony didn't fund the first one, I guess?

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            September 30, 2011 4:03 PM

            It's...not a Sony developed product....

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              September 30, 2011 4:05 PM

              I know. The only Sony reference in the article is how they didn't fund the first one.

              Not sure how that ends up being Sony's fault.

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          October 1, 2011 6:15 PM

          Did the 'I guess' not tip you off to the lack of clear guilt that I picked up from the article? Had Ancel come forth and decreed 'this company - nay, this man - he was responsible' then I would have handed out pitchforks and torches for the mobs.

          But he didn't - and somebody aught to get a pitchfork or a torch. In this case, I think of Sony in the same way I think of Activision and Double Fine.

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      September 30, 2011 9:18 AM

      I really doubt this game will ever happen.

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      September 30, 2011 10:57 AM

      I'll tell you why it won't happen. This game sucked. If you read reviews and message boards, it was the greatest game ever. Then you look at the cold hard reality that it didn't sell. Game over.

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        September 30, 2011 2:21 PM

        Didn't sell = sucks?

        Didn't sell might mean it won't get a sequel, but it doesn't mean it's bad. It could mean it didn't get a good enough ad campaign, that it wasn't mainstream enough to catch people's tastes, or that initial word-of-mouth wasn't strong enough to carry it.

        But, and this is a purely objective statement my good man, BG&E certainly did not 'suck'.

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          September 30, 2011 2:28 PM

          Yeah, it was pretty awesome, anyone who says otherwise doesn't like video games.

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        September 30, 2011 4:36 PM

        It was a fun game, I liked it. Do not pass go do not collect 200 dollars.

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        October 1, 2011 6:16 PM

        By that logic - only quality products sell.

        You know what I think sucks? The entire Halo series. Oh shit - they sold a bajillion copies. I am clearly in the wrong. I'll just go... over... here...

    • reply
      September 30, 2011 1:01 PM

      So for ubisoft it is:

      Releasing a game on consoles and then, a lot of time later release it on PC.
      Thats ok for them.

      Releasing a game on PC and then, a lot of time later release it on consoles.
      Oohh ho ho, no, thats not going to happen.

      Because they don't give a shit about pc customers, as they have proven time after time.

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      September 30, 2011 4:25 PM

      Looks more like a ploy to have a first gen title or the next gen cycle.

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      September 30, 2011 4:33 PM

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