Ubisoft has all the time been creating Past Good & Evil 2. Because the starting of my life, for the reason that starting of videogames, for the reason that starting of historical past, the event of Past Good & Evil 2 has continued with no break.
At the very least, that is the way it feels. After final week’s tough earnings name and the cancellations of a number of unannounced video games, Ubisoft has insisted that Past Good & Evil 2 continues to be coming despite the fact that it has been years since we noticed disguise or hair of it. Greater than the overuse of its open world formulation, greater than the annoying proliferation of Rabbids, greater than CEO Yves Guillemot refusing to take duty for the corporate’s failings, there isn’t any extra quintessentially Ubisoft conduct than saying the phrases “Past Good & Evil 2 continues to be in growth.”
Ubisoft is creating Past Good & Evil 2. Ubisoft has all the time been creating Past Good & Evil 2.
A timeline:
Could 2008: BG&E and Rayman creator Michel Ancel tells JeuxVideo that he has been in pre-production on Past Good & Evil 2 for a yr, with a staff of 10-12 builders, however the recreation has not but been greenlit. This seems to be a tease for a deliberate impending announcement.
Could 28, 2008: The Ubidays 2008 occasion includes a trailer for an untitled recreation displaying off a powerful new recreation engine. The footage consists of Pey’j and Jade from Past Good & Evil, and is clearly Ancel’s in-the-works sequel. It’s the first of solely two seems we get at this iteration of Past Good & Evil 2.
April 2009: Michel Ancel says that BG&E 2 will probably be a direct sequel, and is impressed by the local weather of worry created after 9/11 (opens in new tab).
Could 2009: Extra footage of Past Good & Evil 2 leaks (opens in new tab).
July 2009: In an interview (opens in new tab), Ubisoft North America president Laurent Detoc confirms the footage was real, but additionally affords the perplexing remark: “Effectively, I did not say there’s positively going to be one other recreation. I mentioned one thing had leaked, which suggests we have been engaged on some Past Good and Evil stuff, however whether or not there’s going to be one other recreation or not, that is one thing for the longer term.” Was BG&E 2 truly greenlit?
January 2010: Aha! Opposite to a rumor that the sport was on maintain, Ubisoft managing director Geoffroy Sardin says Past Good & Evil 2 is still in production (opens in new tab).
August 2010: “We had been, as we’re, engaged on the sport,” Guillemot told Kotaku (opens in new tab).
June 2011: Ancel tells Eurogamer he took a break from BG&E 2 to work on Rayman Origins, however growth continues, and he intimates that it may not be capable to run on current-gen consoles (the Xbox 360 and PS3).
November 2011: Michel Ancel says BG&E 2 is in an “energetic creation stage” in a video interview (opens in new tab). He says they cannot decide to a 2013 launch and can want extra superior know-how to run the sport.
September 2012: Ancel says that Past Good & Evil 2 has been dormant (opens in new tab) whereas the staff labored on Rayman, however that they are prepared to change again.
November 2012: Guillemot tells Polygon (opens in new tab) (which didn’t exist the primary time Ubisoft insisted Past Good & Evil 2 was nonetheless in growth): “It is actually a recreation that we have been working, we now have labored on, and is a recreation that we need to do. However there are such a lot of issues that need to be carried out that, you already know, this one goes to return in line at one level, however for the time being Michel is absolutely on Rayman Legends.”
February 2013: Regardless of commenting on Past Good & Evil 2 three months prior, Yves Guillemot tells Kotaku (opens in new tab): “I do not give feedback anymore on BG&E2, as a result of I feel … the following time we talk we now have to have one thing new.” He additionally says: “It is coming.”
July 2013: “Now that we now have the [new] consoles across the nook we’re engaged on them… Past Good & Evil is a venture I all the time take into account and I hope good issues will come for this venture very quickly,” Ancel says (opens in new tab).
July 2014: Michel Ancel creates his personal indie studio, however Ubisoft claims he is nonetheless an worker, splitting his time between the 2 corporations. The writer then tells Eurogamer (opens in new tab) that Ancel is engaged on “an especially bold new title that may be very near his and the staff’s coronary heart,” which it then confirms is certainly Past Good & Evil 2.
June 2015: Exhibiting hitherto uncommon restraint when requested if BG&E2 was nonetheless in growth, Yves Guillemot says (opens in new tab), “I am unable to say the title, however there’s a staff working with Michel Ancel on a venture that’s… very attention-grabbing. It is a recreation I am certain you’ll like very a lot, and we won’t say extra.”
June 2016: “It is nonetheless on the way in which,” (opens in new tab) Guillemot tells Geoff Keighley throughout a livestream.
September 2016: Michel Ancel posts idea artwork (opens in new tab) from BG&E2 with out naming it as such.
October 2016: Ubisoft posts on the Past Good & Evil Fb web page that it’s “delighted to substantiate that Michel Ancel is at present working with the Ubisoft Montpellier Studio on a brand new Past Good & Evil recreation.” It has been eight and a half years at this level.
June 2017: Ubisoft ends its E3 occasion with a cinematic trailer (opens in new tab) for Past Good & Evil 2. It is an emotional second, and probably the most concrete Past Good & Evil 2 has ever appeared. That may maintain true for the following 5 years.
June 2017: Just a few days after the reveal, Ancel explains (opens in new tab) that BG&E 2 is at “day zero of growth,” which will probably be carried out with neighborhood enter.
June 2018: One other E3 trailer (opens in new tab) teases the return of protagonist Jade, regardless of this being a prequel.
June 2018: Ancel says the dev staff is aiming for (opens in new tab) a playable beta for the top of 2019. It is not going to materialize.
December 2018: Ubisoft reveals off 25 minutes of early BG&E gameplay (opens in new tab), highlighting options like a seamless open world star system and drop-in co-op.
Could 2019: Ubisoft preemptively says (opens in new tab) BG&E2 will not be at E3 this yr, however says the updates will preserve coming.
September 2020: Michel Ancel is accused of poisonous mismanagement among the many different allegations of office abuse and toxicity at Ubisoft. He leaves the corporate (opens in new tab), however Ubisoft says he has not been immediately concerned in BG&E2 growth for a while. The newest submit on the official Twitter account is asserting his departure.
July 2021: In a quarterly monetary name, Ubisoft reiterates (opens in new tab) it is nonetheless making progress on BG&E 2, however declines to supply even a imprecise launch window.
August 2022: BG&E 2 will get a brand new lead author (opens in new tab). Ubisoft says: “The event staff is tough at work to ship on the promise made to its neighborhood.”
November 2022: Insider Gaming claims (opens in new tab) that BG&E 2 is in “early growth,” and sure rebooted because it was proven in 2018. Ubisoft responds by merely saying growth continues to be underway.
January 2023: Ubisoft confirms (opens in new tab) that Past Good & Evil 2 has not been canceled. It’s, because it all the time has been, nonetheless in growth.