Ubisoft’s infamously troubled Beyond Good and Evil 2 is not yet in full development.
The sequel, which was originally announced way back in 2008, has been through multiple cancellations and reworkings. In 2017, the game was re-revealed with a brand-new Voyager Engine designed to bring unprecedented scale to the game’s sci-fi universe.
Despite worries of cancellations after mass layoffs at Ubisoft, we reported in 2025 that the game was still in development with new job listings popping up for the game. The game’s development has been ongoing for so long that its original creative director, Emil Morel, passed away in 2023, and has now been replaced by designer Fawzi Mesmar.
With the game’s development taking so long, many would assume that the game was at least deep in active development. However, that is seemingly not the case with Origami reporting that the game is still in “pre-production” at Ubisoft Montpellier.
According to the outlet, the game has “been a vehicle stuck on an endless highway” with 250 developers still working on the game in pre-production form. “The production of BGE2 has not yet behind,” the outlet claimed, adding that “this project is now trying to go [to] alpha”.
The outlet reports that Beyond Good and Evil 2 was giving “inexorable” support from Ubisoft for years with the sentiment being that the game would never be cancelled. However, following recent changes to the industry, teams are now reportedly worried with an internal push to finally bring the game to full production.
In a translated quote, an internal source at Ubisoft who has reportedly spent six years on the project wondered if it’ll ever be discovered why the game has taken so long. “I don’t think we’ll ever identify the ‘original sin’ of BGE2,” they said. “Not while the project is still alive, anyway, regardless of whether it ever actually releases.”
They continued: “It’s going to require an absolutely colossal post-mortem effort [to break down its failings]. In the meantime, we just keep moving forward, without being able to say what it was that led us here”.
According to the outlet, Beyond Good and Evil 2 might be changing its original design intention. The 2017 reveal of the game boasted an always online, seamless universe where players everywhere were able to pass and interact with other players on their own adventures, similarly to an MMO.
However, sources claim that the new focus for Beyond Good and Evil 2 is a “solo first” experience, although one that can be played entirely in co-op. With this in mind, the game should provide a strong single-player focus “without mandatory connection” while also allowing friends to play together if they wish.
It sounds, though, that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still finding itself, which is worrying for a game that has been in some form of development since at least 2015. In that time, Ubisoft’s other infamous development hell project Skull and Bones has released and reworked, and BGE2 is sadly still spinning its wheels.
With the game still in pre-production, we likely still won’t see Beyond Good and Evil 2 for a number of years. In the meantime, Ubisoft is also working on a complete remake of Splinter Cell, which has seen its own development troubles, but it appears to be in full production now.
