After more than ten years it's still 'too soon' to say when Beyond Good and Evil 2 might be out

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

It's been a long time since we last heard anything about Beyond Good and Evil 2, the follow-up to the critically-acclaimed action-adventure that will very soon be 20 years old. In fact, pretty much everything over the past few years has only emphasized its continued absence from existence, including its exclusion from all of Ubisoft's E3 presentations since 2019. Even BG&E creator Michel Ansel got tired of waiting for it: He left Ubisoft in September 2020, after more than 30 years at the company.

Despite all that, Ubisoft re-affirmed today that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still happening. In its latest quarterly financial report, Ubisoft said that its plan to expand premium game releases over the coming years includes a "revival of [a] fan-favorite franchise with Beyond Good and Evil 2."

That's the good news. The bad news is that, just shy of a decade after the first time we reported on a Ubisoft promise that BG&E2 was still in the works but would likely be a good way off, there's still not even a hint of when we might get our hands (or even just lay our eyes) on it. When asked whether it might appear in Ubisoft's fiscal year 2024—which, for the record, would put it sometime after May 1, 2023—chief financial officer Frederick Duguet said, "We are progressing well with Beyond Good and Evil 2, but it's too early to tell you more at this stage."

And that's the extent of it: Confirmation that Ubisoft still hasn't abandoned the project, and absolutely no commitment beyond that. After the past few years of silence, it's good to know that Ubi hasn't completely forgotten about BG&E2, but I have a distinct feeling that it'll be a long time yet before we get anything more substantial than that.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.