‘Beyond Good and Evil’ (‘BGE’) series creator Michel Ancel has admitted the sequel’s troubled development is down to “passionate managers” disagreeing with one another.
Beyond Good and Evil 2
The upcoming game - which is a follow-up to Ubisoft’s 2003 action-adventure title - was announced at E3 in 2017, and updates on the project have been few and far between since then.
Now, Ancel has revealed one of the main reaasons why the game has not been finished and released yet is due to higher-ups not seeing eye-to-eye on the title's direction.
In an interview with Superpouvoir, he said: “On ‘BGE2’, for example, there were too many problems between managers.
“The artistic director wanted to redo everything constantly, and the game director wanted to make a game of generated dungeons. I dreamed of a space adventure.
“We could not agree and the game director took the project in other directions.”
The series creator - who exited Ubisoft in 2020 after accusations of toxic leadership against him emerged - added the studio’s CEO Yves Guillemot was forced to go to the Montpellier office in an effort to “get things back on track” with ‘Beyond Good and Evil 2’, though the situation didn't improve.
Ancel continued: “In this type of situation, teams find themselves tossed around and don’t even know who’s in charge and making decisions. The producer is supposed to sort things out, but that didn’t happen.
“Yves Guillemot even had to go down to Montpellier to get things back on track, but that wasn’t enough and the game director continued in his stubbornness.
“When I read in [French newspaper] Libé that I was the one directing the game and asking for changes, I thought I was going to choke. ‘BGE2’ is the game on which I don’t think I’ve ever questioned a decision.”