Beyond Good & Evil 2. Missing in action – the most anticipated games lost in development hell
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Could a cartoonish game about a space reporter and her ‘uncle’, who happens to be a talking humanoid pig, achieve a mind-blowing success? Perhaps it could have, but for many various reasons it didn’t. Beyond Good & Evil is one of those titles that didn’t sell that well, but has still managed to find its’ place in the hearts of gamers clamoring for a sequel. It seems that the developers want the same thing, but the road from the first BG&E to its’ sequel is starting to resemble intergalactic space travel – it’s already taking more than a decade.
Michel Ancel, the creator of Beyond Good & Evil and Rayman doesn’t have to worry about his first franchise, but since 2005 he has been hard at work, at his own pace, with making the cult classic a series. The first news about the creation of a sequel to the outstanding adventure game have surfaced at the end of 2005. At the time, the title developed had to be pushed back, for Peter Jackson’s King Kong game adaptation to be made. In mid-2008, a short teaser confirming the existence of Beyond Good & Evil 2 was shown at the Ubidays event. Since that time however, the only relatively interesting reveal was a leak of a concept video from the supposed game. That was more than 5 years ago, and the fans’ patience is put to a great test it seems.
The game was being developed, and then it wasn’t. The developers have reassured us that indeed it was being made, but the restrictions of the consoles were cause of the delays. The most recent news form the house of Ubi tell us that Ancel has formed a small studio called Wild Sheep (supposedly making BG&E2) and is still working with Ubisoft itself. So the game is somewhere out there, but in fact it isn’t. What does the chuck-o-meter say?
