Beyond Good and Evil 2’s tech is sorted but development is at ‘day zero’

At Ubisoft's E3 press conference this year, the publisher finally made an awful lot of its fans happy with the announcement of Beyond Good and Evil 2. Unfortunately, there was no gameplay footage shown and now we know why, as the game is currently at ‘day zero of development'. However, the team has spent the last three years building the tech behind the game, including the engine and various tools, so full-blown production is ready to go.

During an interview with The Verge this week, Beyond Good and Evil 2 creative director, Michel Ancel, explained that Ubisoft's Montpellier studio started work on the tech three years ago. The goal behind the engine is to create a fully fleshed out solar system with populated worlds. Obviously, this is a hugely ambitious undertaking, so ensuring a solid back bone in the form of an engine was a must.

Unfortunately, this does mean that the game is a few years away from being ready. That said, Ancel does hope to have a new version of the game to show properly at E3 2018, which will “look as close as possible” to the cinematic trailer. Hopefully Ubisoft can deliver on its ambitious goals and ideas.

KitGuru Says: Mass Effect Andromeda kicked off with some of the same ideas at play here. Bioware also wanted to deliver a ‘living, fleshed out solar system'. However, the key difference here is that Bioware failed to get its tech right in the lead-up to production. Meanwhile, Ubisoft has invested three years or so building up a new engine specifically for this game. With that in mind, hopefully the team will deliver on its promises. 

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