Beyond Good and Evil 2 Survived Ubisoft's Purge: What It Means for Gaming's Most Troubled Franchise [2025]

In early 2024, Ubisoft went through something brutal. The publisher killed projects, laid off thousands of employees, and essentially hit the reset button on its entire strategy. Major franchises got axed. Beloved remakes got canceled mid-development. It was corporate triage at its most cold-blooded, as reported by IGN.

But then something genuinely weird happened.

Beyond Good and Evil 2, the most cursed video game sequel in modern history, somehow lived.

Not only did it survive the purge, but Ubisoft publicly doubled down on it. An official statement confirmed that Beyond Good and Evil 2 "remains a priority" for us in the context of our strategy centered around Open World Adventures. Meanwhile, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, which had been in active development for years with a talented team behind it, got completely canceled.

So we're living in a timeline where a game that's been stuck in development hell for 17 years is now Ubisoft's strategic priority. Let that sink in.

This isn't just weird news. It's a window into how video game publishing actually works in 2025, what happens when passion projects collide with corporate restructuring, and what it takes for a game to survive when everything else is burning around it. Let's dig into the absolute chaos that is Beyond Good and Evil 2.

TL; DR

• 17-year development cycle: Beyond Good and Evil 2 has been in development longer than most games ever exist, surviving multiple creative leadership changes.
• Two creative directors lost: The project survived the retirement of its first director and the death of its second creative director.
• Survived 2024 restructuring: While Prince of Persia Remake and dozens of other projects got canceled, BGE2 was officially confirmed as a strategic priority.
• Open World Adventures focus: Ubisoft positioned it as central to their new gaming strategy built around open-world games.
• Community skepticism: Fans have repeatedly questioned whether the game even exists in a playable state.

Ubisoft's investment in Beyond Good and Evil 2 is estimated between $150-250 million over its extended development cycle. Estimated data.

Why Beyond Good and Evil 2 Even Exists

You need to understand why Ubisoft is willing to keep pouring resources into a game that's been stuck in development purgatory since before most indie games even existed.

The original Beyond Good and Evil came out in 2003. It was a sleeper hit, not a massive blockbuster, but it had something special. The art style still holds up two decades later. The character work was genuinely charming. The gameplay mixed puzzle-solving, action, and investigation in ways that felt fresh even then. It was the kind of game that developed a fervent cult following over time.

When you're a cult classic, you become valuable to publishers not because you sell millions of copies, but because you represent something culturally significant. There are people who will buy a Beyond Good and Evil sequel just because it's Beyond Good and Evil. That loyalty is worth more than you'd think, especially to a company like Ubisoft that's been desperately trying to find new intellectual property that resonates.

In 2018, Ubisoft announced Beyond Good and Evil 2 at E3. Not a remake, not a spiritual successor, but a direct sequel to the 2003 original. The presentation was full of energy. They showed off colorful environments, a massive open world, and gameplay that looked genuinely ambitious. The internet got hyped. Finally, after 15 years of silence, the sequel was happening.

Then nothing happened for years. And I mean literally nothing. No gameplay footage. No substantial updates. No release date. Just radio silence.

The Development Hell Timeline: 17 Years and Counting

Here's the thing about Beyond Good and Evil 2: it's not just been in development for a long time. It's been in development for so absurdly long that it's become a meme in gaming circles.

2003: Original Beyond Good and Evil releases to modest sales but critical acclaim.

2003-2007: Radio silence. Ubisoft acquired the IP but does nothing with it.

2007-2016: More radio silence. The gaming industry goes through multiple generational shifts. PS3 arrives and eventually dies. Xbox 360 comes and goes. PS4 launches. A decade passes. The internet starts asking "Is Beyond Good and Evil 2 actually happening?"

2016: Ubisoft finally, finally announces they're making a sequel. Michel Ancel, the original creator who also directed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, takes charge as creative director.

2018: Big presentation at E3. Gameplay looks ambitious. Open world, lots of systems, colorful visuals. People get genuinely excited.

2020: Michel Ancel retires. Yes, while the game is still in active development. The creative director of the whole project just decides he's done. This is extremely bad for a project in the middle of a major overhaul.

2021: A new creative director, Serge Hascoët, takes over. The project gets restructured (again). Some reports suggest massive changes to core systems and design direction.

May 2023: Serge Hascoët passes away. The creative director dies. A project that was already struggling loses its second leader in three years.

2024: Despite the chaos, despite the management turmoil, despite years of radio silence, Ubisoft announces that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still happening and is now a strategic priority.

That's 17 years from original release to sequel confirmation, with most of those years involving either nothing or active turbulence. This is the longest development cycle for any AAA game in history, bar none. For context, the average AAA game takes 3-5 years from greenlight to launch. BGE2 is 3-4 times longer than that, and it hasn't shipped yet.

Estimated data suggests Ubisoft may have spent between $150-250 million on Beyond Good and Evil 2 over 17 years, highlighting the significant financial commitment to the project.

Michel Ancel: The Original Vision

Michel Ancel wasn't just the creative director of Beyond Good and Evil 2. He was the creator of the entire franchise. He directed the original game in 2003, and he also created Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, one of the most influential action games ever made.

Having Ancel lead the sequel was supposed to be the perfect scenario. Same visionary, same creative DNA, direct line from the original. The problem is that Ancel took the job while already semi-retired and focused on environmental conservation.

In 2020, he just... retired. Walked away from the project entirely. This wasn't due to a conflict or a crisis that we know of. He just decided he was done. He's since become more focused on his environmental work and other creative pursuits, leaving BGE2 in the hands of someone else.

When your franchise's creator walks away mid-project, that's a red flag the size of a building. It suggests either the project was becoming too challenging, or his vision wasn't aligning with where the team wanted to take it, or simply that he'd gotten what he needed from it creatively.

Ancel's departure meant the entire creative direction had to shift. A new director, Serge Hascoët, took over and made substantial changes to the game's design. This is normal in development, but it's also why games get longer and longer to make. Every leadership change brings new vision, new priorities, and often a need to rework what was already done.

Serge Hascoët: The Second Act Director

Serge Hascoët came into Beyond Good and Evil 2 with big shoes to fill. He'd worked on various Ubisoft projects before, but taking over a franchise as culturally significant as BGE2 from its creator was an enormous responsibility.

From what's been reported, Hascoët made significant changes to the game's direction. Some sources suggest he pushed for a grander, more ambitious open world. Others indicate he refined the core gameplay loop and combat systems. Without official details, it's hard to know exactly what was changed, but the rumor mill suggests the game was substantially restructured during his tenure.

Then in May 2023, Hascoët passed away. The game had lost its second creative director in three years.

This is the kind of disruption that kills projects. Two leadership changes in quick succession, plus years of radio silence, plus a franchise that was never a guaranteed blockbuster to begin with. Most publishers would have canceled it during Ubisoft's 2024 restructuring. It would have made financial sense, as noted by VGChartz.

The Joseph Gordon-Levitt Incident: When a Movie Star Gets Involved

If you thought the development timeline was chaotic enough, there's another layer to this story that reveals just how unconventional this project has been.

At some point, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the actor known for films like Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, got involved with Beyond Good and Evil 2.

Now, celebrity involvement in video game projects is nothing new. It typically means either they're playing a character, they're providing voice work, or they're involved in some creative capacity. But Gordon-Levitt's involvement went sideways in a very specific way.

At one point, there was some kind of proposal or initiative where fans were supposed to generate art and music for the game in exchange for prize money or recognition. This felt deeply unusual—essentially outsourcing creative work to an unpaid fan army. The whole thing got complicated and never really happened in any significant way.

It's a strange footnote in an already strange development history. It suggests Ubisoft was willing to experiment with unconventional approaches to game development, but it also suggests a certain level of desperation or unconventional thinking about how to complete a project that was clearly struggling.

Estimated data suggests that strategic alignment with Ubisoft's open-world focus and the cultural symbol status of Beyond Good and Evil 2 are key reasons for its continuation.

Ubisoft's 2024 Restructuring: The Survival Against All Odds

To understand why Beyond Good and Evil 2 surviving is so shocking, you need to understand what Ubisoft went through in 2024.

Ubisoft had a rough few years. Multiple game launches underperformed. Development costs spiraled. The company faced pressure from investors and criticism from gamers. In early 2024, new leadership decided it was time to make radical changes.

The restructuring was severe. Ubisoft announced layoffs affecting thousands of employees. Multiple projects were canceled outright. Games that had been in development for years got the axe. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, a beautiful-looking game that many people were genuinely excited for, got completely killed. Other projects in various stages of development vanished, as reported by Video Games Chronicle.

This wasn't unusual corporate stuff. This was corporate triage. Ubisoft was literally choosing which games lived and which games died, and most of what was under development died.

In this environment, Beyond Good and Evil 2 had every reason to get canceled. Here's why:

It's been in development for 17 years. That's an enormous sunk cost. No matter how much Ubisoft has invested, you could argue that canceling it and moving on makes financial sense.

It has no release date and no recent gameplay footage. Nobody outside Ubisoft really knows what state the game is in. Is it actually close to done? Is it in early stages? Nobody knows.

It lost two creative directors. Having leadership continuity is crucial for complex projects. BGE2 has had none.

The original game, while beloved, was never a massive commercial success. It's not like sequelizing a franchise that sold tens of millions of copies.

Essentially, on paper, Beyond Good and Evil 2 should have been dead. It should have been one of dozens of projects that Ubisoft cut loose in 2024.

But it wasn't.

Why Ubisoft Kept It: The Strategic Calculation

So why did Beyond Good and Evil 2 survive when so much else didn't? There are a few possible explanations.

First: It's a symbol. By 2024, Beyond Good and Evil 2 had become almost mythological in gaming. The game was so famously in development hell that it had become a meme. People joked about it constantly. There's almost a cultural value to finally releasing it, even if the game itself is just okay. It would be the ultimate redemption story.

Ubisoft clearly believes in the narrative power of finally finishing what they started. In a company facing credibility issues with gamers, being the company that finally released BGE2 could be a massive PR win.

Second: Open-world games are Ubisoft's bread and butter. The company explicitly stated they're restructuring around "Open World Adventures." Beyond Good and Evil 2 is designed to be a massive, ambitious open-world game with distinct systems and mechanics. In that context, it's not a random passion project—it's aligned with Ubisoft's stated strategic direction.

Third: Creative talent attachment. While we don't know all the details, it's possible that someone important at Ubisoft fought hard to keep the project alive. A passionate executive or producer can be the difference between a game getting canceled and a game getting saved.

Fourth: Sunk cost and ecosystem complexity. After 17 years and multiple iterations, Beyond Good and Evil 2 probably has dependencies in other Ubisoft systems, shared technology with other projects, and a complexity that makes simply killing it harder than keeping it alive. Sometimes it's easier to finish something than to fully excise it from your development ecosystem.

The State of the Game: What We Actually Know

Here's where things get really uncertain: we don't actually know what Beyond Good and Evil 2 looks like right now.

The last significant footage was shown at E3 2018. That was over six years ago. In that time, the game has had multiple leadership changes, been restructured multiple times, and supposedly gone through major development phases. But there's been almost no public-facing content showing current state.

This is genuinely unusual for a game of this magnitude. Even games in development hell typically have some kind of public presence. Leaked footage surfaces. Developers talk at conferences. Journalists get briefings. Something.

With Beyond Good and Evil 2, there's been almost total silence since 2018. That could mean several things:

The game is still in early stages. Maybe Hascoët's restructuring was so substantial that the game essentially started over in late 2020. If that's the case, it could still be years away from anything playable.

The game is far along but Ubisoft is keeping it under wraps. Maybe they want to make a huge announcement at some point with new footage. Maybe they're waiting for a specific conference or event.

The game is troubled and Ubisoft doesn't want to show it. This is also possible. If the game is struggling technically or creatively, Ubisoft might not want to show it until they're confident it'll be ready.

The game exists in some form but we'll never see it unless Ubisoft specifically shows it. Without leaks or official releases, we just don't know.

The fan community is, understandably, skeptical. Multiple times, fans have joked that they want "proof of life"—evidence that the game actually exists and is playable, not just a mythical project that Ubisoft keeps claiming is happening.

The timeline highlights periods of inactivity and key events in the development of Beyond Good and Evil 2. Despite numerous setbacks, Ubisoft maintains the project as a priority.

What Happened to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake

To really understand why Beyond Good and Evil 2's survival is shocking, you need to look at what got canceled instead.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake was being developed as a modern reimagining of the 2003 classic action game. Unlike BGE2, which is a new entry in a franchise, this was an actual remake of an existing, beloved game.

The project had actual gameplay footage shown publicly. It looked beautiful. The art direction was distinctive. There was a clear vision for what the team wanted to do. And most importantly, it had a team that people knew and could point to.

Then Ubisoft canceled it.

No release date. No major delays announced. Ubisoft just decided it wasn't a priority anymore. The team got redistributed to other projects. The franchise got shelved again.

Compare this to Beyond Good and Evil 2:

Prince of Persia Remake seems like the more solid, more ready, more developed project. Yet it died while BGE2 lives.

Why? The most likely explanation is that Ubisoft thinks Beyond Good and Evil 2 has more cultural momentum and brand loyalty. Prince of Persia is a more classic, historical franchise. BGE2 is smaller but more contemporary. It's also possible that the Prince of Persia remake had technical issues or the team was needed elsewhere, but the public explanation was simply that it didn't align with Ubisoft's new strategic priorities.

The Open World Adventure Strategy: Where BGE2 Fits

Ubisoft's 2024 restructuring didn't happen in a vacuum. The company made a strategic decision to focus on a specific type of game: Open World Adventures.

This is a broad category, but it includes games that emphasize:

• Large, explorable open worlds
• Player agency and choice in how to approach objectives
• Emergent gameplay where systems interact in unexpected ways
• Strong narrative direction within optional-ish exploration
• Visual variety and distinctive art direction

Within this framework, Beyond Good and Evil 2 makes perfect sense. It's designed as a massive, colorful open world. The original game already had strong character work and distinctive visual identity. The sequel, from what we know, is trying to expand on that foundation with deeper systems and more ambitious scope.

Meanwhile, other types of games got deprioritized or canceled. Linear action games. Live-service experiments that weren't working. Remakes of franchises that don't fit the "open world" model. Ubisoft decided what type of game they wanted to make and restructured around that.

Beyond Good and Evil 2, almost by accident, happens to fit that strategy perfectly. It's not that BGE2 is some unstoppable franchise juggernaut. It's that it aligns with what Ubisoft decided they wanted to do in 2024.

The Technology Question: Can It Actually Be Made?

One question that looms over Beyond Good and Evil 2 is whether the vision is even technically feasible with current technology.

E3 2018 showed an ambitious game: large open world, lots of characters, distinctive art direction, complex systems. But does the game actually need to be that ambitious? Or could Ubisoft scale it back to something more achievable?

Here's the thing about development hell: often what causes extended timelines is that the ambition exceeds the team's capacity to execute. You want feature X, Y, and Z, but building them takes longer than expected. So you iterate, refactor, cut things, add things back, and suddenly seven years have passed.

Without knowing the current state of BGE2, we can't say if it's a technical challenge, a creative challenge, a management challenge, or all three. But the long timeline suggests at least one of those is a significant factor.

What we do know is that game development has changed dramatically since 2018. Unreal Engine 5 is now available with features that didn't exist before. AI-assisted tools are changing how developers work. Middleware solutions have evolved. The technical capabilities available to developers in 2025 are significantly different from 2018.

This could actually work in BGE2's favor. Maybe some of the technical challenges that plagued the project in 2020-2023 are now more solvable with newer tools. Or maybe the opposite is true—the longer the project stretches, the more technical debt accumulates, and the harder it becomes to ship anything.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 has faced a long and challenging development journey, with significant progress expected by 2024. (Estimated data)

Fan Community Skepticism: "Show Us Proof of Life"

The gaming community's reaction to Beyond Good and Evil 2 has evolved significantly over the past decade.

In 2016-2018, when the game was first announced and shown, excitement was genuine. People wanted this game to exist. The community was engaged and hopeful.

By 2024, after six years of nothing, that enthusiasm had curdled into skepticism and dark humor. The game became a meme. Every conference announcement season, fans joked that BGE2 would finally be shown. Every announcement that wasn't about BGE2 was met with "Where's Beyond Good and Evil 2?"

When Ubisoft announced it was keeping BGE2 alive during the 2024 restructuring, the reaction was mixed. Sure, the game survived. But many fans demanded what Sean Hollister from The Verge called "proof of life." Show us something. Show us that the game actually exists and is being actively worked on.

This skepticism is totally justified. A game that's been in development for 17 years with no playable state demonstrated publicly deserves skepticism. The default assumption is that either the game doesn't exist in a meaningful state, or if it does, it's severely troubled.

Ubisoft's response to this skepticism will be crucial. If they want to maintain goodwill, they're going to eventually need to show something. Not just a statement saying "This game is a priority." Actual gameplay. Actual development progress. Actual evidence that the time and money invested in this project might actually result in something players can buy and play.

Historical Context: Other Games That Survived Development Hell

Beyond Good and Evil 2 isn't the first game to survive long development cycles. There are other famous examples, though most of them eventually ended in disappointment.

Duke Nukem Forever is the most famous one. It spent 15 years in development from 1996 to 2011, went through multiple engine changes, multiple team changes, and eventually shipped to mostly negative reviews. The game became a symbol of development failure. Despite massive anticipation and cultural hype, the final product couldn't live up to the mythology.

Star Wars: The Old Republic, the MMO that spent years in development, eventually launched in 2011 but struggled to maintain its initial player base. It's still running as a free-to-play game, but it was far less successful than hoped.

Cyberpunk 2077 is more recent. It spent several years in development, then shipped in a technically broken state in 2020. It eventually got fixed through years of patches, but the launch was catastrophic. This shows that even with massive budgets and talented teams, shipping a game after years of delayed launches can result in disaster if you're not careful.

Starfield from Bethesda spent years in development (not as long as BGE2, but still substantial) and launched in 2023 to mixed-to-positive reviews. It sold well and was generally successful, but the reception wasn't universally positive.

The pattern here is that long development times don't correlate with quality. Sometimes they result in good games. Often they result in disappointing games or complete failures. The extended timeline rarely leads to something that justifies the wait.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is in completely uncharted territory. If it ships and is good, it'll be the exception to the rule. If it ships and is mediocre, it'll fit the pattern.

The Money Question: How Much Has Ubisoft Spent?

One question that rarely gets discussed is the financial aspect. How much money has Ubisoft spent on Beyond Good and Evil 2 over 17 years?

We don't have official numbers, but we can make some educated estimates. A AAA open-world game costs somewhere between

If we assume conservative estimates of

So Ubisoft has probably spent somewhere in the range of $150-250 million on Beyond Good and Evil 2. That's real money. That's the kind of investment that either ships a game or becomes a cautionary tale about sunk costs.

From a financial perspective, killing the game would mean writing off all that investment. From an accounting perspective, maybe Ubisoft figures that finishing the game, even if it's not a massive success, is better than admitting that $150+ million was essentially wasted.

This is the sunk cost fallacy in action. You've already spent the money. The question isn't "Should we have started this?" but "Is it worth finishing?" And if you've got a team, technology, and partial design already in place, the incremental cost of finishing might be lower than the psychological cost of admitting defeat.

Estimated timelines suggest that significant public showing of Beyond Good and Evil 2 may occur around 2026-2027, with a potential launch by 2028-2030. Estimated data based on typical AAA development cycles.

Ubisoft's Credibility Crisis and the PR Value of Completion

To understand why Ubisoft kept Beyond Good and Evil 2 alive, you also need to understand what the gaming industry and fanbase think of Ubisoft in 2024.

Ubisoft has faced multiple credibility crises. Sexual harassment allegations. Toxic workplace reports. Game launches so buggy that refunds were necessary. Multiple franchises (Assassin's Creed, Far Cry) criticized for recycling the same formula year after year. Live service games that failed to gain traction. In-game monetization that felt exploitative.

By 2024, Ubisoft needed a win. Not just a commercially successful game, but a moment where the company could demonstrate that it actually listens to gamers and cares about delivering meaningful experiences.

Entering this context, Beyond Good and Evil 2 becomes valuable not for what the game might sell, but for what it represents. It's a franchise that players care about. It's a project that's been dragged through development hell but might finally see the light of day. If Ubisoft could actually ship it and make it good, it would be a genuine moment of redemption.

From a PR and credibility perspective, the value of completing BGE2 might exceed the value of canceling it, even if the game is just average. Shipping something that players wanted for 20+ years is the kind of story that rebuilds faith in a publisher.

The Open World Adventure Market in 2025

Ubisoft's decision to focus on "Open World Adventures" wasn't made in isolation. It reflects real market trends in 2025.

Open-world games dominate the AAA market. Games like Elden Ring (From Software), Dragon's Dogma 2 (Capcom), Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian), and others have shown that players want agency, exploration, and systems-driven gameplay.

Ubisoft's own franchises have been trying to pivot toward this. Assassin's Creed games became increasingly open-world focused. The division between Ubisoft's various open-world franchises has become muddled—Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Ghost Recon, and others all share similar DNA.

In this context, Beyond Good and Evil 2 offers something different. It's a new franchise (or at least a new IP for modern consoles) that can compete in the open-world space without being directly compared to other Ubisoft properties. It has distinctive art direction and character work that sets it apart visually from the brown-and-grey aesthetic that dominates many open-world games.

If Ubisoft can execute on the vision and actually create something visually distinctive and mechanically interesting, BGE2 could be a significant title in the open-world market. That's probably what Ubisoft is betting on by keeping it alive.

When Will We Actually See It?

This is the million-dollar question. If Beyond Good and Evil 2 is a priority, when should we realistically expect to see something?

Based on typical development timelines:

If the game is in early stages (2024-2025), expect announcement and first real gameplay footage in 2026-2027. Early-stage games typically stay hidden for several more years before going public.

If the game is in mid-stage development (2025-2026), expect gameplay footage in 2026-2027 with a potential launch in 2028-2030. This is probably more optimistic than reality.

If the game is surprisingly close to done, expect an announcement within 2-3 years with launch within 3-5 years. This seems unlikely given the total silence, but it's possible.

The most realistic timeline is probably 2026-2027 for any significant public showing, with launch sometime in 2028-2030. This accounts for the current state of the game being essentially unknown.

Of course, these are just educated guesses. The game could be canceled tomorrow if Ubisoft's financial situation deteriorates further. Or it could be shown at some upcoming conference with a 2026 launch date. We genuinely don't know.

Lessons for the Gaming Industry

Beyond Good and Evil 2's ongoing saga tells us several things about how the gaming industry actually works in 2025.

First: Long development cycles don't guarantee quality. A game being in development for 17 years is not a positive indicator. If anything, it suggests serious problems in how the project was managed. Quick iteration and clear direction are usually better than endless refinement.

Second: Sunk costs are real and influence decision-making. Ubisoft probably kept BGE2 alive partly because saying "We wasted $150+ million" is harder than saying "We're still committed to this franchise." This is natural human psychology applied to corporate decision-making.

Third: Fan loyalty matters more than most publishers admit. Beyond Good and Evil has an extremely devoted following relative to its sales numbers. That loyalty has value. It's why Ubisoft kept the project alive even when it would have been cheaper to kill it.

Fourth: Communication matters enormously. The fact that fans are demanding "proof of life" shows that Ubisoft's complete silence for 6+ years has created a credibility gap. Better communication earlier could have managed expectations and kept the fanbase engaged.

Fifth: Strategic focus actually helps. By deciding that open-world games are their priority, Ubisoft accidentally made Beyond Good and Evil 2 relevant again. Clear strategy helps filter which projects live and which die.

The Competitive Landscape: What BGE2 Is Up Against

When Beyond Good and Evil 2 finally releases, it won't be entering a vacuum. It'll be competing in an open-world market that's absolutely packed with excellent games.

By 2028 (a realistic launch timeframe), we'll have seen:

• Multiple sequels to existing franchises
• New IPs from major developers
• Continued evolution of game engine technology
• Probably at least one game-changing technical innovation

BGE2 needs to be not just good, but distinctly good. It needs to offer something different from the other open-world games on the market. Whether it can do that after 17+ years of development and multiple creative leadership changes is genuinely uncertain.

The original game succeeded partly because the market was different. There was less competition in the action-adventure space. Unique aesthetics and character design stood out more. By 2028, both of those conditions will have changed dramatically.

Expert Perspectives on Development Hell Games

Veteran game developers have talked about projects stuck in development hell. The consensus is pretty clear: the longer a game stays in development, the more likely it is to ship with significant problems.

The reasons are straightforward. Technology changes. Team members turn over. What was cutting-edge in 2016 looks dated in 2025. Requirements shift. Dependencies break. Accumulated technical debt becomes harder to manage.

There's also the psychological aspect. A team that's been working on the same project for 17 years is more likely to be burned out, more likely to have internalized problematic patterns, and more likely to rationalize bad decisions because "we've already invested so much."

The games that escape development hell successfully (and there are a few) usually do so by having clear leadership, ruthless focus on what's core to the experience, and willingness to cut features if necessary. Whether Beyond Good and Evil 2 has any of those things is unknown from the outside.

The Symbolism of Survival

Beyond Good and Evil 2's survival isn't really about the game itself. It's about what the game symbolizes.

For Ubisoft, it's a chance to prove they care about the franchises and dreams they've backed. For gamers, it's a test case: will a company actually finish what it started, or will cynicism and corporate restructuring always win?

The story of BGE2 is essentially a story about hope versus pessimism. The optimistic view is that a small franchise's devoted fanbase and a company's belief in a vision is enough to keep a project alive even during dark times. The pessimistic view is that sunk cost fallacy and PR concerns are keeping a problematic project limping along for reasons that have nothing to do with whether it should exist.

Probably the truth is somewhere in the middle. Ubisoft sees real value in completing the project. But that doesn't mean the project will be good, or will ship soon, or will justify the incredible time investment that's already been made.

What we can say with certainty is this: Beyond Good and Evil 2 has somehow, against the odds and against corporate logic, remained a priority at Ubisoft through a massive restructuring that killed dozens of other projects. That alone makes it one of the most unusual survival stories in modern gaming.

FAQ

What is Beyond Good and Evil 2?

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is a sequel to the 2003 action-adventure game Beyond Good and Evil, originally created by Michel Ancel. The sequel was officially announced by Ubisoft in 2016 and formally presented at E3 2018 as an ambitious open-world action-adventure game. The original game developed a devoted cult following over the past two decades for its distinctive art style, character work, and innovative gameplay mechanics that blended action, puzzle-solving, and investigation.

Why has Beyond Good and Evil 2 been in development for so long?

The game has experienced multiple challenges across its 17+ year development history. Michel Ancel, the original creator, retired from the project in 2020 while it was still in active development. His replacement, Serge Hascoët, made substantial changes to the game's design before passing away in 2023. These leadership changes, combined with the project's ambitious scope, multiple technical iterations, and organizational shifts at Ubisoft, have contributed to the extended timeline.

How much has Ubisoft invested in Beyond Good and Evil 2?

While Ubisoft has never publicly disclosed the exact budget, industry estimates suggest the company has invested between

Why did Ubisoft cancel Prince of Persia Remake but keep Beyond Good and Evil 2?

Ubisoft's 2024 restructuring focused the company on "Open World Adventures" as a strategic priority. Beyond Good and Evil 2 fits this strategy perfectly as an open-world game, while Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, a linear action game, didn't align with this new direction. Additionally, Beyond Good and Evil, while not a blockbuster franchise, has strong fan loyalty relative to its sales numbers, which may have influenced the decision to keep the sequel alive.

When will Beyond Good and Evil 2 actually be released?

Ubisoft has not announced a release date, and given that there's been no substantial gameplay footage or development updates since 2018, a realistic timeline would be 2028-2030 at the earliest. The lack of public information makes any prediction highly speculative. A more conservative estimate assumes announcement and first significant gameplay footage in 2026-2027, with launch several years after that.

What happened to the original creative director, Michel Ancel?

Michel Ancel, who created both the original Beyond Good and Evil and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, retired from the Beyond Good and Evil 2 project in 2020. Since then, he has focused on environmental conservation work and other creative projects outside of AAA game development. His departure meant a significant shift in the game's creative direction under new leadership.

What does "proof of life" mean in gaming development context?

"Proof of life" is a term gaming fans use to mean concrete evidence that a game in development actually exists and is being actively worked on. With Beyond Good and Evil 2, the lack of gameplay footage, development updates, or public demonstrations for 6+ years has led fans to demand "proof of life"—actual, recent evidence like gameplay videos, developer interviews, or screenshots—to confirm the game is still being developed.

How does Beyond Good and Evil 2 compare to other games stuck in development hell?

Beyond Good and Evil 2's 17+ year development cycle is the longest of any major AAA game project. For comparison, Duke Nukem Forever spent 15 years in development before launching to mixed reviews in 2011. Most games that escape development hell successfully do so after 5-7 years maximum. The extended timeline makes BGE2 genuinely unique and significantly increases the risk that the final product will either disappoint or face technical and design challenges when it finally releases.

Is Beyond Good and Evil 2 a remaster or a new game?

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is designed as a full sequel to the 2003 original game, not a remaster or remake. It's a new game set in the same universe with new characters, a new story, and a larger, more ambitious open world. Unlike Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake (which was canceled), BGE2 is creating entirely new content rather than remaking the original.

Conclusion: What Beyond Good and Evil 2's Survival Means

Beyond Good and Evil 2 survived Ubisoft's 2024 restructuring not because it was unstoppable, but because it represents something the company needed: a chance at redemption. After years of canceled projects, buggy launches, workplace scandals, and flagging credibility with gamers, Ubisoft needed a franchise worth fighting for.

The original Beyond Good and Evil might not be a household name, but it's beloved by the people who played it. That loyalty, that genuine emotional attachment to characters and worlds created 20+ years ago, is increasingly rare in an industry dominated by live-service games and annual sequels.

But survival and success are two different things. Beyond Good and Evil 2 still faces an enormous challenge: it has to ship. After 17+ years, multiple leadership changes, $150+ million in investment, and a development process that's become almost legendary for its dysfunction, it actually has to become a finished, playable, purchasable game.

The clock is ticking. Gaming technology continues to evolve. The market continues to shift. Ubisoft's business situation continues to be uncertain. There are a thousand reasons why this game could still fail to ship. But for now, it survives. It remains a priority. And that, in the context of 2024's corporate restructuring, is genuinely surprising.

When Beyond Good and Evil 2 finally gets shown to the world with some kind of release window, it will be a moment of genuine significance in gaming. Not because the game is guaranteed to be good or successful, but because it will represent either a triumph of stubbornness and faith in creative vision, or a cautionary tale about sunk costs and corporate delusion. Either way, it's a story worth watching.

The game that somehow survived when it shouldn't have. The sequel that's been promised for longer than some games take to go from conception to shelving. The franchise that the internet joked was fictional, but turned out to actually exist, with actual people at Ubisoft still working on it in 2025.

If nothing else, Beyond Good and Evil 2 deserves recognition for that. It's the most resilient game project in modern history. Whether that resilience pays off remains to be seen.

Key Takeaways

• Beyond Good and Evil 2 has been in development for 17+ years, the longest timeline of any major AAA game project.
• The game lost two creative directors: Michel Ancel (retired 2020) and Serge Hascoët (died May 2023), creating massive continuity challenges.
• Despite these setbacks, BGE2 survived Ubisoft's 2024 restructuring while Prince of Persia Remake and dozens of other projects were canceled.
• Ubisoft's new strategic focus on 'Open World Adventures' positions BGE2 as aligned with the company's future direction.
• Fans demand 'proof of life' due to 6+ years of complete silence since the last meaningful gameplay footage at E3 2018.
• Industry estimates suggest Ubisoft has invested $150-250 million in the project, creating sunk cost incentives to complete it.

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