Last week at E3, Beyond Good & Evil 2 once again made headlines thanks to a comment by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. “Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still happening,” gaming sites declared.
As Guillemot explained to Geoff Keighley on YouTube’s E3 show: “It’s still on the way. It’s something at one point you will see, yes.”
Sounds familiar doesn’t it?
May 15, 2008 - “I am working on Beyond Good & Evil 2. We have been in preproduction on the title for a year, and we’re currently doing market research. But for the moment, it’s in the early stages, and Ubisoft still hasn’t agreed to it.” - series creator Michel Ancel
January 15, 2010 - “Both [Beyond Good & Evil 2 and I Am Alive] are still in production.” - Ubisoft VP Geoffroy Sardin
August 19, 2010 - “We were, as we are, working on the game. What is very import with this next product is that it will be perfect.” - Yves Guillemot
November 15, 2011 - “The second game, Beyond Good & Evil 2, is a game that we really want to make, but at the right time. Beyond Good & Evil was very special to us, because it was our first action-adventure game. With the second one we really want to be able to create the original game we first dreamed about.” - Michel Ancel
May 7, 2012 - “We are in an active creation stage and at this moment we are only focusing on the game and making it the best game that we can. I can say that it’s a very ambitious game and we need some tech to achieve that ambition. We focus on the game. We create it first, then we’ll see what can run it. We don’t say 2013 because we don’t know when it will come. We’re working to create a great game and it needs more tech.” - Michel Ancel
November 13, 2012 - “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.” - Yves Guillemot
February 25, 2013 - “I don’t give comments anymore on BG&E2, because I think ... the next time next time we communicate we have to have something new... It’s coming.” - Yves Guillemot
July 17, 2013 - “We’ve made a lot of things already. Now we need to put them together and make that game. If there would be any communication it will be in the next year, just trying to talk about the fact we are on it. But so many people in Ubisoft want to make that game, honestly.” - Michel Ancel
April 15, 2014 - “Working on Rayman Legends was a nice, early holiday. So we are going to make serious games now. Beyond Good & Evil [is] a good candidate for making a real, serious game now.” - Michel Ancel
July 31, 2014 - “It’s still far too early to give many details about this new title, but what we can say is that while Michel and the team at Ubisoft Montpellier are working with the core tenets of BG&E, they’re developing something that aspires to push past the boundaries of a proverbial sequel and leverages next-gen technologies to deliver a truly surprising, innovative and exceptional game. The entire team is excited about the direction this extremely ambitious project is taking, and we’ll have more to share later, as it progresses.” - Ubisoft spokesperson
June 26, 2015 - “I can’t say the name, but there is a team working with Michel Ancel on a project that is... very interesting... It’s a game I’m sure you will like very much, and we can’t say more.” - Yves Guillemot
January 28, 2016 - “Yeah [it’s in development], but it’s difficult because it’s hard for me to do the same kind of game two times. I always want to do something different.” - Michel Ancel
June 13, 2016 - “It’s still on the way. It’s something at one point you will see, yes.” - Yves Guillemot
We look forward to next year’s statement.