Playable beta for ‘Beyond Good & Evil 2’ won’t be ready for quite some time

Of all the games Ubisoft showed off during its E3 2018 press conference, perhaps the most impressive was Beyond Good & Evil 2. The long-awaited follow-up is a much larger and more ambitious game than the original, and we can’t wait to play it — but we’re going to be waiting quite a long time before that happens. Responding to a fans’ question on his Instagram page, Ubisoft Montpellier creative director Michel Ancel revealed that his team hopes to have a “playable beta for the end of next year.” If Ubisoft sticks to this schedule, it means we’re still about a year and a half away from actually playing Beyond Good & Evil 2 in any form, and it will likely be at least a month after that before we’ll have the full game. Ancel’s estimate still sounds a little optimistic, considering what we’ve seen from the game thus far. Alongside another cinematic trailer during E3, Ubisoft showed off a small slice of movement and combat during its press conference, and in a behind-closed-doors demonstration, we were able to see the game in a little more detail. The team still has quite a bit of work ahead of it, however. Ubisoft has even partnered with Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s company HitRecord in order to crowdsource art and writing assets. After E3, we know at least a little bit more about Beyond Good & Evil 2‘s story. A younger Jade, who starred in the first game, returns for the prequel, but it appears that she’ll be an antagonist this time around. You’ll be able to create your own playable character, as well, including “hybrid” creatures that contain elements of monkeys, rhinos, sharks, and other animals. Ancel certainly has a large workload these days. In addition to his work on Beyond Good & Evil 2, he is also developing the nature game Wild at his independent Wild Sheep Studio. It looks nearly as ambitious as Beyond Good & Evil 2, and will allow players to turn into nearly any wildlife they come across in its open world. The game was first announced nearly four years ago and has received few updates since, but it appears to still be in development. Final Fantasy XV, Duke Nukem Forever, and Alien: Colonial Marines all endured “development hell,” announced years (and sometimes decades) before launching, and undergoing multiple iterations and restarts during development. Although many of these games have released, there’s one big title still stuck in limbo: Beyond Good and Evil 2.  Going on 13 years of development — some of which weren’t spent on active development — Beyond Good and Evil 2 is, unfortunately, still a few years away. In the meantime, here’s what we know about the release date, pre-orders, multiplayer, and more.
The E3 2018 Beyond Good and Evil 2 trailer
Beyond Good & Evil 2: E3 2018 Cinematic Trailer | Ubisoft [NA]