It's been years since Jade and her uncle Peyj fought the good fight, but that is about to change.
With news that Michel Ancel, the creator of Ubisoft's Rayman franchise and the designer of the original Beyond Good and Evil, would be co-founding a new indie developer named Wild Sheep, people began to speculate what this meant for the future of his games at Ubisoft. The company has responded that Ancel would still be working with the developer Ubisoft Montpellier, including creating the long awaited sequel to Beyond Good and Evil.
"We are fortunate to have some of the industry's finest talents, including Michel Ancel, working with us at our studio," stated Xavier Poix, managing director of Ubisoft Montpellier in Paris. "In addition to spending some of his time on this new venture, Michel is leading the creative development of select projects at Ubisoft Montpellier, including an extremely ambitious new title that is very close to his and the team's heart."
Fans of Beyond Good and Evil speculated that this ambitious title could in fact be the long-promised sequel. Ubisoft then confirmed it is and released a statement saying, "In many ways, [Beyond Good and Evil] is an inimitable game -- it appeals to all generations of gamers and is an inspiration behind many of Ubisoft Montpellier's past and future games. It's still far too early to give many details about this new title, but what we can say is that while Michel and the team at Ubisoft Montpellier are working with the core tenets of BG&E, they're developing something that aspires to push past the boundaries of a proverbial sequel and leverages next-gen technologies to deliver a truly surprising, innovative and exceptional game. The entire team is excited about the direction this extremely ambitious project is taking, and we'll have more to share later, as it progresses."
The original Beyond Good and Evil was a science fiction action game taking place in the future on a colony on the planet Hillys. It's about photojournalist Jade and her mechanic Uncle Peyj being drawn into a rebellion against the aliens occupying the planet. It was released in 2003 for Game Cube, PlayStation 2, PC and Xbox. In 2011, Beyond Good and Evil HD was released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, updating the graphics to HD quality.
In 2008, Ancel revealed that he had begun pre-production on Beyond Good and Evil 2. A teaser video gave a glimpse of Jade, but focused on a very detailed Peyj trying to nap beside a broken down car. The game did not go into production then, but in 2011 Ancel stated that the game would be made for the next-generation of consoles. In 2012, Ubisoft released a handful of images of the game's setting. And now, with the latest game consoles launched, Beyond Good and Evil 2 is finally moving forward.
Considering the time it takes to create a video game and the fore-mentioned ambitious nature of the sequel, the game may not be released until 2016 or later.
