This sounds like it’s one of those game ideas too early for its time.
There’s a new report with some wild claims about Ubisoft’s white whale, Beyond Good & Evil 2.
According to French journalist Gautoz, the game is actually still in pre-production, 18 years after their first teaser trailer in Ubidays 2008.
As you may imagine, the game has missed all of its scheduled milestones, with Gautoz claiming that management is partly to blame for repeatedly moving the goalposts.
There is apparently one very good reason Ubisoft continues to hope on this project, the now mythical Voyager engine. This engine originally enabled multiplayer between small groups brought together in matchmaking, but that has been repeatedly scaled down to the point that it’s now a single player experience first.
Gautoz also says the game has shifted from “Zelda in Space” to Insomniac’s Spider-Man games. 250 people are working on it now, mostly at Ubisoft Montpelier. All these studios were part of Ubisoft’s layoffs, and may continue to see layoffs. But as recently as last month, Ubisoft has been hiring for it too.
All this points to a project too early for its time, like Starfield or Metroid Dread. The question is, when will it be the right time for Beyond Good & Evil 2?
