Do you despair of ever seeing Beyond Good & Evil 2? We finally know why the game’s development is so chaotic

Sunday 15th December 2024 12:06 AM

In 2003, Beyond Good & Evil was released, an action-adventure game developed and published by Ubisoft. As soon as the game was developed, the idea of a sequel, or rather a prequel, was considered, especially since the first opus ended on a cliffhanger. Beyond Good & Evil 2 was thus confirmed in 2008, then presented in 2017 during the Electronic Entertainment Expo that same year. As we approach the end of 2024, we still have no idea when the game will be released.

However, thanks to recent revelations from Michel Ancel, the creator of Rayman and Beyond Good and Evil, who left Ubisoft in 2020, we now know why the game’s development is so chaotic.

Internal conflicts impacted the development of Beyong Good & Evil 2

In a recent interview with Superpower, Ancel gave his point of view on what went wrong with Beyond Good & Evil 2. For him, the biggest problem would come from internal conflicts between the different members of the team of development. Everyone wanted to follow their own ideas, without taking into account those of others.

On certain projects, we give ourselves very important challenges and we bring teams on board with passion, but without knowing how long and complex the path will be. Passion is a fabulous energy but it can also lead to clashes between enthusiasts. On BGE2, for example, there were too many problems between managers. The artistic director wanted to constantly redo everything, the game director wanted to make a generated dungeon game and I dreamed of a space adventure. We simply couldn’t agree and the game director took the project in other directions.

In this type of situation, teams find themselves tossed around and no longer even know who leads and makes decisions. The producer is supposed to put things in order but that hasn’t happened. Yves Guillemot even had to go down to Montpellier to get things back on track, but that wasn’t enough and the game director continued in his stubbornness. When I read in Libé that it was me who was in charge and asking for changes, I thought I was choking. BGE2 is the game I don’t think I’ve ever questioned a decision on. I would be happy to discuss this subject with possible detractors.

In the end, this is all a matter of passionate leaders who did not agree. I believe that for some time now, these people have been let go and the project has found a certain balance with new leaders. These management concerns are of course very damaging for the teams. All this shows that indeed, it is not simple: a lot of ego and a lot of issues with human management that can clearly be improved.

Michel Ancel

(Source)

He also states that he finds it regrettable that he has been accused of being one of the main reasons for the game’s problems, and even invites those who point the finger at him to talk to him about it. In the end, he believes that everyone had their share of responsibility : “There was not a single big bad guy but a number of key concerns, unresolved at the level of those responsible, of which I was a part. I have my share of responsibility and I should have defended the project better, been more present and more accommodating with colleagues.”

Beyond Good & Evil 2, where are we?

The most important information to remember is that the project is not dead, and that development continues. After the departure of Michel Ancel, Guillaume Brunier, one of the main producers of the game, was removed from pre-production. He has since been replaced by Francis Coldeboeuf, who had already worked on the project. Fawzi Mesmar, for his part, took over the position of Creative Director this year following the premature death of Émile Morel. With the team now reinforced by two veterans, we can hope that the development of Beyond Good & Evil 2 continues with more serenity. On the other hand, before we can get our hands on it, we will unfortunately have to wait many more months, and probably years.