Now I’m not sure how far back your gaming lineage goes, but Rayman creator Michel Ancel made an absolute blinder of a game called Beyond Good and Evil back in November 2003. Unfortunately this game slipped through the cracks of many a gamers mind. With poor sales despite rave critical reception, this game was consigned to the bargain bins after only a few month. What many missed was an absolute master class in story telling and interaction.
Well, the great news was unveiled back in 2008 that Michel Ancel and Ubisoft were working on a sequel to the much-loved title. Trouble is, everything has been deathly quiet over at Ubisoft’s French HQ about the games development, prompting many to ask where it was. Earlier this year a Ubisoft Exec went on record as saying the games was “Still in development” and many breathed a heavy sigh of relief – until now.
A rumour has now broken forth, via a French source, stating that Ancel, along with another “star developer”, have removed themselves from the employ of Ubisoft. The reason being that they want to set up and manage their own production company in France. This has immediately prompted the notion that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is dead in the water. Without the main creative force behind the project it would be hard to proceed.
What lends weight to this particular revelation is that multiple rumors have been swirling since the initial teaser trailer was shown back in 2008 that Ancel and Ubisoft were at odds over the games development and direction. If this game is actually canned, then it will be a very sad day indeed. The promise of this game was one of the things I had been most looking forward to at E3. We will see what transpires over the coming few days and weeks.
Beyond Good and Evil 2 teaser trailer follows:
Part of me is sad, because what I played of BG&E was, as you said, a master class in storytelling and interaction.
But on the other hand, it was kind of a master class on how to make the most boring and unintuitive action gameplay you could possible create, as well. It’s a game I really want to enjoy and play to the end, but I also feel like it intentionally sets up obstacles every step of the way to stymie my efforts.
So, in that regard, I’m pretty ambivalent about a sequel.
Yeah fair comment there Jamie – the game was super-janky in places which is why I hoped an update would address those issues and fully realise the potential… sadly this might never happen.
On the plus side Rayman might finally die!!
So wish…
I’m gonna need a minute to take this in
Looks like the initial reports were wrong – news coming via EuroGamer are saying the all is A-OK with the title and that Ancel is still with the company… time will tell
I hope it survives. BG&E was a great game that got a raw deal.
SuICIDE AND DEPRESSION. I’M JUST GONNA SAY IT. I WAS REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING THE SECOND PIECE OF ART MICHEL ANCEL COULD CREATE WITH HIS GENIUS IDEAS. I AM PURSUING VIDEO GAME DESIGN IN COLLEGE AND FELT INSPIRED BY HIS WORK. HE DESTROYED MY DREAMS. BUT I’M GOING TO COMMIT SUICIDE.