Sound the alarm! Alert your loved ones! Nearly 18 years after its original announcement, Beyond Good & Evil 2 apparently still isn’t dead, according to a Ubisoft Bordeaux developer who says he’s been working on the game for months.
Beyond Good & Evil 2 was originally unveiled back in 2008, and has seemingly been stuck in development hell ever since. However, last year brought new signs of life when a fresh job posting for the game appeared online. And now, after another lengthy lull in updates, lead writer and associate narrative director Rik Godwin has confirmed (as spotted by IGN) the project is still in development. With Ubisoft’s permission, of course.
“Odd sort of non-announcement but for the past few months I’ve been working on Beyond Good & Evil 2 in a support/consultant role, Godwin wrote on social media. “I am allowed to say this, I checked.”
The current state of Beyond Good & Evil 2 remains a mystery, and the overall question of whether it’s dead or not has confounded onlookers for years.
Since its unveiling in 2008, we’ve had a flashy E3 cinematic trailer, which was shared the following year. Later, Joseph Gordon Levitt’s Hit Record announced a – briefly controversial – partnership with Ubisoft which would allow artists to submit works for use in the game. In 2022, the game overtook Duke Nukem Forever in the Guiness Book of Records as the longest game in-development. There was a further flurry of news in January 2023 when Ubisoft insisted Beyond Good & Evil 2 still existed, and gameplay footage emerged that September via an animator’s portfolio.
Since then, Ubisoft has continued to sporadically insist, with little evidence, Beyond Good & Evil 2 remains in development, with its latest reassurance (save for Godwin’s post) coming in January of this year.
Perhaps we may still yet see Beyond Good & Evil 2 emerge from this mire. There’s a strange nostalgia writing about its ongoing development; I remember seeing its cinematic E3 trailer back in 2018 – I was 20-years-old at the time! Now I’m nearing 30 with a beard. Hopefully Jade has fared better. One can hope!
