The game was originally announced at Ubidays 2008, with almost a decade of silence before being re-revealed at Ubisoft’s E3 2017 conference, although no release window or target platforms have been mentioned.
Its development was characterized in the media by uncertainty, doubt, and rumors about the game’s future, and has been referred to as vaporware by industry figures such as Jason Schreier due to its lengthy development and lack of a release date.[1] In 2022, Beyond Good and Evil 2 broke the record held by Duke Nukem Forever (2011) for the longest development period of a AAA video game, at more than 15 years. In 2023, the creative director, Emile Morel, died suddenly at age 40.
Financial concerns and reorganization (2023–present)
Citing disappointing financial results in the previous quarter, Ubisoft cancelled another three previously unannounced games in January 2023.[86] In an email to staff, Yves Guillemot told employees to take responsibility for the company’s forthcoming projects, asking that “each of you be especially careful and strategic with your spending and initiatives, to ensure we’re being as efficient and lean as possible”, while also saying that “The ball is in your court to deliver this line-up on time and at the expected level of quality, and show everyone what we are capable of achieving.”[87][88] Union workers at Ubisoft Paris took issue with this message, calling for a strike and demanding higher salaries and improved working conditions.[89]
In August 2023, Ubisoft announced that it had reached a 15-year agreement with Microsoft to license the cloud gaming rights to Activision Blizzard titles; this came as part of efforts by Microsoft to receive approval from the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The agreement would allow Activision Blizzard games to appear on Ubisoft+, and allow Ubisoft to sublicense the cloud gaming rights for the games to third-parties.[90][91]
As part of a cost reduction plan, Ubisoft reduced its number of employees from 20,279 in 2022 to 19,410 in September 2023.[92] In November 2023, Ubisoft laid off 124 employees from its VFX and IT teams.[93] In March 2024, Ubisoft laid off 45 employees from its publishing teams.[94] Another 45 employees were cut between its San Francisco and Cary, North Carolina offices in August 2024.[95] By the end of September 2024, Ubisoft had reduced its number of employees to 18,666.[96]
In 2024, Ubisoft released multiple games that experienced underperforming sales and declining playerbases post-launch, which included Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Skull and Bones, XDefiant, and Star Wars Outlaws, causing its stock to fall to nearly its lowest levels in the previous decade.[97] As a result, the company announced they were launching an investigation of their development cycles to focus on a “player-centric approach”, and opted to delay its next major flagship game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, from November 2024 to February 2025.[98]
On 16 October 2024, over 700 Ubisoft employees in France began a three-day strike, protesting the company’s requirement to return to the office three days a week. The strike, organized by the STJV union, involved Ubisoft’s offices in Paris, Montpellier, Lyon, and Annecy. Workers expressed dissatisfaction over a lack of flexibility, salary increases, and profit-sharing, which they believe the company has ignored. Ubisoft has yet to address the union’s concerns.[99]
In December 2024, Ubisoft announced that their free-to-play game XDefiant would be shutting down in June 2025, less than a year after its initial release.[100] They also announced that its lead development studio Ubisoft San Francisco, and Ubisoft Osaka, were to close, resulting in up to 277 employees being laid off.[101]
In January 2025, Ubisoft closed the Ubisoft Leamington studio and downsized several other studios, resulting in up to 185 staff being laid off as part of ongoing cost-cutting measures.[102][103]
Around September 2024, one of Ubisoft’s shareholders, AJ Investments, stated they were seeking to have the company purchased by a private equity firm and would push out the Guillemot family and Tencent from ownership of the company.[104] Bloomberg News reported in October 2024 that the Guillemots and Tencent were considering this and other alternatives to shift ownership of the company in light of the recent poor financial performance.[105] Later reports in December 2024 suggested that Tencent was seeking to capture a majority stake in Ubisoft and take the company private, while still giving the Guillemot family control of Ubisoft.[106] In January 2025, it was reported that the Guillemots had also considered carving out certain Ubisoft assets into a new subsidiary, which would allow Tencent to make targeted investments to increase the company’s overall value.[107] Ubisoft announced this subsidiary on 27 March 2025, devoted to its flagship Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six franchises; the subsidiary will consist of the franchises’ assets and development teams, and have dedicated leadership. Tencent will make a €1.16 billion investment in the new subsidiary, giving it a 25% stake at a valuation of €4 billion; the value of this subsidiary is larger than the current valuation of Ubisoft, which is based on Tencent’s belief that these properties are undervalued. Ubisoft stated that the subsidiary would “focus on building game ecosystems designed to become truly evergreen and multi-platform”.[108][109][110] The new subsidiary, Vantage Studios, was unveiled in October 2025,[111] with Christophe Derennes and Charlie Guillemot to be co-CEOs.[112] With its financial quarterly report on July 2025, Ubisoft stated that it will reorganize into “creative houses” that will “enhance quality, focus, autonomy and accountability while fostering closer connections with players”, with the previously announced Tencent-backed subsidiary as an example of such a division.[113] At the end of August, Ubisoft sold the rights to five of their titles, including Grow Home and Cold Fear, to Atari SA.[114]
…my bet would be against it coming out. Or, even if it does…I mean, people who wanted the game want it because the original Beyond Good and Evil was a solid game. That first game came out in 2003, 22 years back. That’s a long gap in time, technology, and people. Someone could probably sit down and try to come up with a list of examples where you had one very successful game in a series and another that far down the road, and my guess is that in most cases, the next game doesn’t live up to the original.
tries to think of an example where someone’s managed something like this
I like Carrier Command 2. That came out 33 years after Carrier Command, though it certainly didn’t meet with the same level of relative success, and there was an (unsuccessful) remake of the original between the two releases.
Probably not. Even the thing that was shown several years ago, and that hasn’t been mentioned again since, wasn’t a sequel. It was a completely different style of game, and a prequel with different characters.
The first game ended on a sequel hook, and left a lot unresolved. People who asked for a sequel mostly wanted to know what happens next. They weren’t asking for a procedural multiplayer open world with different characters in another time frame.
BGE ends like the Empire Strikes Back. It’s a bittersweet ending in which main characters have evolved, but the conflict is not resolved at all… and there’s even a good guy still in deep shit. Obviously it needs the sequel to wrap everything up.
BGE2’s announcement is like we got nothing after Empire Strikes Back for a decade, so no Return of the Jedi, and George Lucas came back to tell us “we’re doing the prequel trilogy now, no plan on ever concluding the old storyline”.
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Is that sequel ever coming out?
I don’t need one. But there was talk a few years back about it.
I’m fine with letting that one be a grand moment in my gaming memories. No need to top it off.
I loved the original. Even if the sequel does eventually come out, Ubisoft won’t be getting any more of my money. They’ve burned me too many times.
I don’t see any official announcement of cancellation, but honestly, between its development not going well:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Good_and_Evil_2
And Ubisoft as a whole having problems recently:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubisoft
Financial concerns and reorganization (2023–present)
…my bet would be against it coming out. Or, even if it does…I mean, people who wanted the game want it because the original Beyond Good and Evil was a solid game. That first game came out in 2003, 22 years back. That’s a long gap in time, technology, and people. Someone could probably sit down and try to come up with a list of examples where you had one very successful game in a series and another that far down the road, and my guess is that in most cases, the next game doesn’t live up to the original.
tries to think of an example where someone’s managed something like this
I like Carrier Command 2. That came out 33 years after Carrier Command, though it certainly didn’t meet with the same level of relative success, and there was an (unsuccessful) remake of the original between the two releases.
Probably not. Even the thing that was shown several years ago, and that hasn’t been mentioned again since, wasn’t a sequel. It was a completely different style of game, and a prequel with different characters.
The first game ended on a sequel hook, and left a lot unresolved. People who asked for a sequel mostly wanted to know what happens next. They weren’t asking for a procedural multiplayer open world with different characters in another time frame.
BGE ends like the Empire Strikes Back. It’s a bittersweet ending in which main characters have evolved, but the conflict is not resolved at all… and there’s even a good guy still in deep shit. Obviously it needs the sequel to wrap everything up.
BGE2’s announcement is like we got nothing after Empire Strikes Back for a decade, so no Return of the Jedi, and George Lucas came back to tell us “we’re doing the prequel trilogy now, no plan on ever concluding the old storyline”.