New reports have surfaced surrounding Ubisoft’s long-gestating sci-fi sequel, Beyond Good & Evil 2, with the title reportedly still in its pre-production stages after almost two decades, having undergone numerous changes over the years.
This information stems from French outlet Origami Media, whose sources state that the game was initially planned as a multiplayer-focused title back in 2019, one where players would team up and explore planets together. According to Origami, the game would have players portraying a “blank” character, who would just tag along on the adventures of the franchise’s main heroes.
Over time, however, the project is said to have evolved, transitioning from a massively multiplayer title to one with smaller matchmade groups, and down to pairs, with the aim of the project eventually changing into a “solo-first” adventure with “no mandatory online connection and featuring a strong narrative that can also be played in co-op”, according to Origami. In addition, the current state of the game is also said to bear some resemblance to Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man games, particularly with its combat.
Beyond Good & Evil 2 might go down in history as the longest time a video game has spent in development, surpassing Duke Nukem Forever’s 14-year record, with the sequel first unveiled via a CGI trailer in 2008. Years of dormancy eventually gave way to the reveal at E3 2017, when renewed efforts of development were revealed. This was followed by a behind-closed-doors preview event for the press in 2018, with a promised beta being released one year after, but these plans would never materialise. Most recently, the game would receive a new creative director, with veteran designer Fawzi Mesmar joining the project in 2024, but the project itself still remains a mystery to this day.
And so fans will just have to keep waiting for any sort of info on the game, although if these latest reports are to be believed, at least we can rest easy that Ubisoft is learning from the mistakes of so many other studios and doubling down on a proper single-player experience over yet another live-service multiplayer-centric game.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
