Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has revealed that development on Beyond Good & Evil 2 has “slowed” due to Michel Ancel’s work on Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends.
Guillemot offered the update during an interview with Polygon last week, stating:
“What’s very important is that Michel Ancel is kind of doing too many things at the same time. He was working on Rayman Origins last year, and he’s working a lot on Rayman Legends this year. So, you know, when he does that, he kind of puts too much of his time on the other projects that he has.”
“So the fact is, that working on Legends is slowing the process on Beyond Good and Evil 2.”
“It’s really a game that we’ve been working, we have worked on, and is a game that we want to do. But there are so many things that have to be done that, you know, this one is going to come in line at one point, but at the moment Michel is really on Rayman Legends.”
We already knew that Beyond Good & Evil 2 had been pushed back to the next generation of consoles, so it is not surprising to hear that development on the game has stalled out a bit. What is a bit surprising is that Ubisoft has the gall to suggest that the Rayman titles are the reason behind it.
In February 2011 Ubisoft producer Wang Xu hinted that we should “buy Beyond Good & Evil HD” to show support for Beyond Good & Evil 2. Then in November 2011 the company’s senior VP of sales and marketing Tony Key stated that even though the HD remake was “doing very well” we would also need to buy Rayman Origins so that Ancel would “have more leeway” to continue work on the Beyond Good & Evil sequel. Judging from Yves’ latest statement, it now appears that the only leeway that Rayman Origins bought Ancel was the ability to make Rayman Legends.
I have little doubt that Beyond Good & Evil 2 will actually get released someday. However, Ubisoft has clearly shown that it is not so much a project at this point, as it is a carrot that the publisher can dangle in front of us as part of their marketing plans for other titles.
Source: Polygon