It has long been a concern for fans of the first game that Beyond Good and Evil 2 was no longer in the works. However, recently this was confirmed, and now we received news via LinkedIn that Fawzi Mesmar has joined the team as Creative Director. This was announced publicly on LinkedIn, with Mesmar announcing his new role at Ubisoft Montpellier, having previously worked as Vice President of Editorial at Ubisoft.
Emile Morel was the previous Creative Director for the title but sadly passed away suddenly last year. This led to Mesmar filling the role. This industry veteran has over 20 years of experience in the industry, working for companies such as DICE, King, and Gameloft. He also won the Ambassador Award at the 2024 Game Developer’s Choice Awards.
For many, this news came as a surprise, as Beyond Good and Evil 2 was first announced in 2008, with a trailer released at Ubisoft’s E3 conference in 2017, and there has been little information about the sequel since then. Original director Michel Ancel even left Ubisoft in 2020, and now works on the wildlife sanctuary. However, he is now consulting on a new Rayman project.
While there hasn’t been any news about Beyond Good and Evil 2, a 4K remake of the original was released earlier this year. However, this meant the original version of the game was removed, and people were forced to buy the 20th Anniversary Edition.
Since Beyond Good and Evil 2 is reportedly still in development, this makes it the longest development time for a AAA game, with Duke Nukem Forever’s record being fifteen years. It was said that development took a long time due to toxic leadership, chaotic direction, and constant gridlock when it came to decisions about how the game should look, and what features would be in the game.
In addition to Fawzi Mesmar joining the team, Francide Coldeboeuf has now taken over as Producer of Beyond Good and Evil 2. Considering the struggles Ubisoft has faced with their other projects, such as Star Wars Outlaws and XDefiant not performing up to their expectations, it is quite surprising that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still in development years later.
However, the title has reportedly passed an internal milestone with positive feedback from leadership, as reported by Kotaku. Whether that means that the game will actually do well remains to be seen, and it’s anyone’s guess when audiences will finally see the game come to fruition.