Some games get cancelled. Some get delayed. And then there’s Beyond Good & Evil 2, a title that has existed in a strange limbo between life and death for nearly two decades. Now, fresh comments from a developer at Ubisoft Bordeaux suggest the long-suffering sequel is, against all odds, still breathing.
A New Whisper from Inside Ubisoft
According to a report from Eurogamer, a developer at Ubisoft Bordeaux has revealed he’s been working on Beyond Good & Evil 2 for the past several months. It’s the kind of offhand comment that would be entirely unremarkable for any other game — but for a project that was first announced when the Playstation 3 was cutting-edge hardware, it’s practically a headline event.
The claim adds yet another chapter to one of the most bizarre sagas in video game history. While Ubisoft has occasionally reassured fans that the game remains in development, concrete updates have been vanishingly rare, and many players had long since written the sequel off as a casualty of development hell.
Nineteen Years in the Making
The Original Cult Classic
To understand why anyone still cares, you have to rewind to 2003, when the original Beyond Good & Evil launched. Developed under the direction of Michel Ancel, the action-adventure followed photojournalist Jade as she uncovered a conspiracy on the planet Hylia. Critics adored it, but commercial success eluded the game, making it a beloved cult classic rather than a blockbuster franchise.
The Announcement That Wouldn’t Die
A teaser trailer for the sequel surfaced in 2008, kicking off what would become one of gaming’s longest waits. The project disappeared, resurfaced, and transformed repeatedly over the years — at one point becoming a prequel set before the events of the first game, with an ambitious online, shared-world design. A flashy cinematic trailer at E3 2017 reignited hype, but actual gameplay and release details never materialized in any meaningful way.
Turbulence Behind the Scenes
Development has been anything but smooth. Lead studio Ubisoft Montpellier faced well-documented struggles, key creative figures departed — including Ancel himself, who left the games industry entirely in 2020 — and reports of development restarts have circulated for years. The game even earned a reputation as the longest-running development project in the industry, a dubious honor if there ever was one.
What the Latest Comments Actually Mean
Here’s where a healthy dose of skepticism is warranted. A developer spending months on a project doesn’t guarantee a release is imminent, or even that the game is in full production. Ubisoft has multiple studios contributing to projects across its portfolio, and narrative, technical, or prototyping work could all explain the claim without pointing to a launch window.
Still, the fact that anyone is being paid to work on Beyond Good & Evil 2 in 2025 is genuinely noteworthy. With Ubisoft undergoing significant restructuring in recent years and prioritizing its biggest franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and The Division, many assumed the sequel would be quietly shelved for good. The Bordeaux revelation, however small, suggests someone at Ubisoft still believes in Jade’s return.
Should Fans Get Their Hopes Up?
Realistically, caution remains the wise approach. Nearly nineteen years of false starts have taught the Beyond Good & Evil community to temper expectations. But if you’ve never experienced the original 2003 adventure — or you want to revisit it ahead of any potential sequel news — now is a great time to jump in.
You can pick up game codes and gift cards for Beyond Good & Evil and hundreds of other titles at TURGAME.com, where instant delivery and competitive prices make catching up on gaming’s most legendary stories easy.
Whether Beyond Good & Evil 2 ever actually ships remains one of gaming’s great unanswered questions. But for now, the heartbeat monitor is still faintly beeping — and for a game that’s been declared dead more times than we can count, that’s a victory in itself.
Source: Eurogamer