Michel Ancel claims Beyond Good & Evil 2 development hindered by ‘problems between managers’

Rayman and Beyond Good and Evil creator Michel Ancel has shed more light on the development issues faced by Beyond Good & Evil 2, blaming management conflicts.

The sequel was originally announced back in 2008, and despite a re-reveal in 2017 there’s still been no sign of a release any time soon. Ancel left Ubisoft in 2020, saying he was leaving the video game industry entirely to focus on a new career in wildlife.

Now, in a new interview with Superpouvoir, Ancel has given his view on what went wrong with Beyond Good & Evil 2 during his time at the company, saying he felt that clashes between management were the main issue.

“On some projects, we set ourselves huge challenges and take on teams with passion, but without knowing how long and complex the road ahead will be,” Ancel explained. “Passion is a fabulous energy, but it can also lead to clashes between enthusiasts. On Beyond Good & Evil 2, for example, there were too many problems between managers.

“The art director wanted to redo everything over and over again, the game director wanted to make a generated dungeon game and I was dreaming of a space adventure. We simply couldn’t agree, and the game director took the project in other directions.

“In this type of situation, the teams are thrown around and don’t even know who’s in charge and who’s making the decisions. The producer is supposed to bring order to the situation, but that didn’t happen. Yves Guillemot even had to go down to Montpellier to get things back on track, but that wasn’t enough, and the game director continued in his stubbornness.”

Ancel also stated that while he was annoyed to have been cited in reports as one of the key reasons for the game’s issues, he did take some responsibility by not speaking out more.

“When I read in [French newspaper] Libé that I was the one running the game and asking for changes, I thought I was going to choke,” he recalled. “Beyond Good & Evil 2 is the one game where I don’t think I’ve ever questioned a decision. I’d be delighted to discuss this with any detractors.

“At the end of the day, it’s all a case of passionate managers not getting along. I believe that some time ago, these people were dismissed and the project found a certain balance with new managers.

“These management problems are of course very damaging for the teams. All this goes to show that it’s not an easy job – lots of egos and lots at stake, with clearly room for improvement in terms of human management.”

He added: “There wasn’t just one big villain, but a whole series of key issues that remained unresolved at management level, including myself. I have my share of responsibility and I should have defended the project better, been more present and more conciliatory with the staff.”

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot claimed in 2020 that Beyond Good & Evil 2 was “coming along very well”, after being asked to provide a development update on the game during an earnings call following Ancels’ departure.

Four years later, however – and some 16 years since the sequel’s initial announcement – Ubisoft has still shown nothing substantial relating to the game.

Despite this, it maintains that it remains in development, and a 20th Anniversary Edition remaster of the first Beyond Good & Evil released earlier this year contained a new mission which the publisher said “reveals more about the narrative link to Beyond Good & Evil 2, showing Ubisoft’s enduring commitment to the franchise”.