After eight years, 'Beyond Good & Evil 2' is still mired in pre-production

By Gabe Gurwin October 5, 2016

beyond good and evil 2 technical problems beyondgoodevilhd — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The long-awaited sequel to the cult hit Beyond Good & Evil is indeed on the way, but don’t start clearing your schedule quite yet — the game isn’t even close to launching.

Posting on Instagram, Michel Ancel, longtime Ubisoft Montpellier creative director, revealed new character art from the sequel — a rhino with long dreadlocks and a military cap — with the image’s caption listing the game as “in pre-production.”

Endangered species – now saved – Game in pre-production – Stay tuned !

A photo posted by Michel Ancel (@michelancel) on Oct 4, 2016 at 2:19pm PDT

The character appears to be one of the Mammago brothers from the original game, though his cap has gotten considerably smaller and his clothing a bit more militaristic. This follows two other images uploaded by Ancel on the same account, first of a pig creature on the shoulders of a mechanic, and, later, of a bipedal shark.

If you haven’t yet played the original game, you have a couple of options for doing so without spending any cash. In August, a backward compatible version of Beyond Good & Evil was released through Xbox Live’s “Games With Gold” program to Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners. The PC version will also be the next free game released for Ubisoft’s 30th anniversary celebration, starting on October 12. Another one of Ancel’s creations, Rayman Origins, was made available for free earlier in the summer.

A Beyond Good & Evil sequel was originally announced by Ubisoft more than eight years ago with a beautiful teaser trailer, but virtually no information has been released in the ensuing years. Since then, Ancel has continued to direct other projects at Ubisoft Montpellier, including Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends. His time is now split between Ubisoft and his independent Wild Sheep Studio. The team’s first project is the ambitious PlayStation 4 exclusive Wild, which Ancel claims features a game world the size of Europe and the ability to play as everything from a wolf to a trout.

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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