Beyond Good and Evil 2 Shows Surprising New Signs of Life

Against all odds, Beyond Good and Evil 2 is somehow still alive. Rik Godwin, a narrative director and lead writer at Ubisoft, announced on social media that he’s been working on the game for the past two months. This isn’t a leak or a slip-up, and Godwin said he checked before posting, implying Ubisoft is fine with yet another vague confirmation that the game exists.

Ubisoft has been making oblique references to Beyond Good and Evil 2 for years now. Back in June, Ubisoft brand director Loïc Gounon confirmed in an interview with Polygon that the game is still in active development. That said, Godwin’s announcement stands out because it shows Ubisoft is still allocating additional developers to the game despite its seemingly endless development cycle and the company’s broader financial woes.

A few months ago, Ubisoft announced a €1.3 billion ($1.48 billion) operating loss for its fiscal year ending in March 2026. The company’s stock price plummeted after it began a major restructuring in January, reorganizing itself into five creative houses dedicated to specific genres. As part of the announcement, it canceled development of six games, including the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake. Overall, the company cut 1,200 jobs during its previous fiscal year.

What’s the story with Beyond Good and Evil 2’s development?

Beyond Good and Evil 2 was originally announced in May 2008 with a trailer showing the protagonist Jade and the pigman Pey’j. Then came a very long wait. Ubisoft and the game’s director, Michel Ancel (who created Beyond Good and Evil and Rayman), made conflicting statements about the project’s continued development before Ancel confirmed in 2016 that the project was on hold while his team worked on a new Rayman game.

On June 12, 2017, Ubisoft showcased a major new trailer for the game at E3, highlighting ambitious interplanetary travel. In 2020, Ancel left the studio. Over the next few years, Ubisoft has periodically announced that development is still underway but hasn’t offered any concrete updates. Back in 2022, Beyond Good and Evil 2 broke Duke Nukem Forever’s record for being the longest in-development AAA game ever.

Considering the general state of the game industry, where former industry heavyweights like Halo are being moved under new management due to underperformance, it’s quite surprising that a struggling publisher is carrying on with the 18-plus-year development cycle of a sequel to a game that didn’t sell very well in the first place.