Narrative designer Sarah Arellano, formerly of Blizzard, today announced via Twitter that she had joined the project as its lead writer. Arellano previously worked on World of Warcraft, following a stint at Saints Row studio Volition. It’s been years since we last got a proper update on Beyond Good & Evil 2, the long-awaited and ambitious-sounding sequel to Ubisoft Montpellier’s brilliant adventure game launched back in the GameCube era. The sequel is designed to build on the original scope for that first title, featuring a grand sci-fi story set across an array of explorable planets. Ubisoft has kept the project listed in its financial documentation as an ongoing concern, but we’ve not seen evidence of any real progress since a series of livestreams that ran until late 2019. The original game was the brainchild of Rayman creator Michel Ancel, who worked for years on this sequel before announcing in September 2020 that he had left the video game industry behind for good to focus full-time on running a wildlife sanctury. Following his departure, a French newspaper reported Ancel’s management style and lack of focus on the project in recent months had been the subject of several complaints at his studio. Ancel responded to the report and refuted many of its claims, saying it was the words of “a few people with rage and jealousy” speaking “in the name of hundreds”. Work on Beyond Good & Evil 2 has continued at Ubisoft Montpellier, but the game has not been glimpsed again since, and still lacks any kind of formal launch window.
