Beyond Good and Evil 2has shown off some stunning cinematic trailers, as well asgameplay footage at E3that may have gotten a lot of fans' hopes up about an imminent release window. Unfortunately, the game’s Senior Creative Director has taken to Instagram to reveal thatBeyond Good and Evil 2is still a long way off completion.
At E3 2018, Ubisoft gave a behind-closed-doors demo of the game, which made it clear that it would be anopen-world RPG with galaxy exploration. This rather ambitious-sounding elevator pitch may go some way to explaining the lengthy development process ofBeyond Good and Evil 2 -rumors for which began circulating way back in 2007.
On Instagram, Senior Creative Director Michel Ancel posted an image of Ganesha City, one of theBeyond Good and Evil 2’s environments, and began responding to a few fans in the comment section. One such fan asked “when will there be a release date?”, to which Ancel responded: “We aim for a playable beta for the end of next year”.
The news will no doubt come as a disappointment to those closely followingBeyond Good and Evil 2and hoping to get their hands on it soon. Ubisoft, however, remains unconcerned with the 15 year (and counting) gap since the originalBeyond Good and Evil, withCEO Yves Guillemot expressing his full confidence in Ancelto pull off the project.
Thankfully for Ancel, he won’t be alone in creatingBeyond Good and Evil 2’s ambitious open world; the Space Monkey Program will allow fans from across the world to submit their own artwork, music, or even writing to the game. The system will also allow contributors to collaborate, working together to create content that may find its way into the final game.
SoBeyond Good and Evil 2does unfortunately belong to the camp of games we saw at E3 that are still a long way off releasing. Fans should at least be reassured that the game is in a playable state, and not still at the conceptual level of development like Bethesda’s long-awaitedThe Elder Scrolls 6.With a beta planned for late-2019, we may even see a lot more of the game before the year is out.
Beyond Good and Evil 2is currently in development, with a beta planned for the end of 2019.
