Beyond Good & Evil 2 has officially been in development longer than any other game, ever, overtaking previous Guinness World Record holder Duke Nukem Forever (in the category of longest development period for a video game) for that particular dubious honour. Brendan Sinclair, the managing editor for GamesIndustry.biz, noticed the feat and put it quite succinctly:
https://twitter.com/BrendanSinclair/status/1575170951854977029
Ubisoft first began officially discussing Beyond Good & Evil 2 back in 2008, which was before Push Square even existed (if you can imagine such an unenlightened, desolate age). A CGI trailer for the project was released, and that was kind of it, for years. Ubisoft maintained that the project was still in development, but outside of rumours and concept art, it wasn't until E3 2017 that we saw the game in any meaningful way, although even that was just another CGI trailer.
Again, things went quiet. In 2020 series creator Michel Ancel left Ubisoft, and the company maintained that "Beyond Good and Evil 2 is well underway, and we are currently concentrating on core development and production milestones."
Fast forward to 2022, and we brought you the news that the title was still in pre-production, and (six months later) had just found its lead writer. That's where things stand at the moment, and we still have no hint of a release date in sight. It looks like this particular record is going to be hard to beat, especially considering that challenger Dead Island 2 is actually releasing in February.
When, if ever, do you think we will see Beyond Good & Evil 2? Could any game possibly be worth a wait this long? Twiddle your thumbs in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 39
Obviously the longer development time means a better game. We all remember how good Duke Nukem Forever was!
Just put a bullet in it already.
I’m rooting for this game, but it seems the ambitions of the creator have gotten in the way.
It didn’t need to be this big, grand game that breaks new ground, it just needed to honour what made the first game great, use that as the foundation and build from it.
Surely this is only a record once a game releases? Anyone who can make a CGI animation could announce it as a game in development and occasionally say they are still working on it without ever releasing it.
@Enigk Good point. I started making a game in RPG Maker 2K about 22 years ago. Then I stopped working on it about, hmm, 22 years ago. I guess I'm the new record holder. 🥳
What seemed ambitious when announced has now been superceeded. You cant keep a game design for this long and expect it to still be relevant...
Yep, and for someone who was excited for a sequel about a decade ago, that has since dried up.. espcially since Ancel left. It was his passion project, what really is the point of this anymore?
I’m still waiting for The 90’s Arcade Racer a.k.a ‘90s Super GP.
Almost 10 years since they Kickstarted it. I even bought a bloody Wii U for it. Haha.
Still listed as coming soon. Hahahahaha.
https://www.nicalis.com/games/90ssupergp
And to think I was getting grouchy about the 1089 days since Last of Us MP Factions was announced.
Even if by some miracle BG&E2 do get released in the future I strongly doubt the final version would be worth the wait.
They should just scrap it and fix the x/y axis on the original game instead. Much cheaper.
Don't have much faith they would do justice to the original. All the trailers and other info leaking out looked like a very different game.
iirc didn’t they ask the ‘fans’ to submit art work for free so that they could flesh out the world & let them be part of it on stage at an e3??
Ubi needs to stop announcing games & actually finish them first.
That’s like saying Half Life 3 has been in development longer than any game. I mean, there have certainly been ideas rattling around at Valve and it has about as much chance of being released.
@kyleforrester87
Valve doesn't want to make games anymore, considering how much bank they make on Steam who can blame them.
What even is this game, what genre, what gameplay, what is the story? Do they even know? Why can't they just do a more polished version of the first game and it's design? At least with Duke Nukem Forever we knew what the f--king genre was!
@PegasusActual93 I can blame them, since on a personal level exactly how rich the CEOs get does nothing for me, but I’d enjoy a HL3. Same reason I can blame Truss and Co for royally screwing me over last week.
This all makes me feel a lot better about VtM: Bloodlines 2
@kyleforrester87
I don't think how much CEOs make is relevant here as despite not really making games anymore they must still pay their employees quite well considering much of the original developers are still there after more than 20 years. That level of stability and job security in this industry is practically unheard of.
@PegasusActual93 you’re asking if I can blame them for not making HL3, sure I can. Who else am I going to blame.
"After all that, this is it?" will be the review headliner. This need to be on RDR2 levels to live up to the wait.
I was gonna ask about duke nukem 🤣 as if its been longer now the main guys left they have no idea what game to make now just cancel it ubisoft having such a rough time at the minute shame
"Unenlightened, desolate age". Mmhmm indeed
Michel Ancel was horrible to work for by all accounts so I can’t imagine anyone chomping at the bit to finish his opus. With him gone, the project is just an aimless, expensive time sink.
The 2008/PS3 Beyond Good & Evil announcement at least appeared to be the single player sequel I would have liked to see conclude the events of the original game & finding P'eyj. The swearing Gorilla MMO thing just feels like its riding on the original's coattails but will be a soulless mtx live service grindfrest trying to be Ubisoft's GTA Online!🙄
Such a wasted opportunity!
I know there are a lot of fans of the series, but just cancel it.
By the time the game does finally come out, it'll probably be full of problems and the gameplay will be so outdated it'll be dead on arrival.
Way this is going, I'll be playing this with my grandchildren.
Does the first game need a remake? I know with recent debate that it sounds like I jest, but I’m not kidding. 😅 I never played the first one and I don’t really know if I have access to it unless I dust off some legacy consoles.
I thought they showed in engine footage? 🤔
@Kairu I'm guessing not that bad if it's still in pre-production after all these years. People probably aren't really working on it and it's more like every now and then someone pitches "what if the game was like this?" and management replies "no, we don't want to do that".
I can't believe it's been that long since Duke Nukem Forever released!! I spent 14 years of my life hearing about it eventually coming out. And now it's already been 11 years after it came out. Weird.
sure, if you can actually find evidence that supports the game being in ACTIVE development since 2008 — which it wasn't. this game has become vapourware more times than i can count and with ancel no longer at the company, i think we know how this is going to end.
Don't worry ...When Valve announces Half-Life 3 in 90 years, then surely they'll beat the record.
I LOVED the first game and was super excited when they announced the second, but they have gone through so much with the game. It tells me they don’t know what direction they need to go with it or that it’s not working the way they want. Reboot, restarting, adding, subtracting… I’ll be surprised if it ever comes out and if it does, if it ever turns out good.
It sounds like it needs to take the star citizen route.
There’s a record for everything 😉😉 Now I have something to aspire towards.
This game is going to be epic in 2027.
At this point we should just let the sequel die and move on honestly...
@mus422 They did, they explain they were building a brand new engine for the game so that they could create whole planets, or very large planets and seamless flights from planet to space.
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