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Kotaku: Michel Ancel on Beyond Good & Evil 2 and the Future of Ubisoft

O

orthodoxy1095

Banned
“That was not a gimmick but a way to say 'Look. The game exists and we can do it.'”, Ancel says, explaining the timing behind the image’s release. Ancel says his team at Ubisoft has been working on the sequel properly since the release of Rayman Legends - it’s still a long way from release, and needs to be “more concrete” before he spills all the beans, but represents “a very serious development for Ubisoft.”
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Ancel explains that one of the reasons it’s taken this long for the game to go into full development is that the technology simply wasn’t mainstream until two years ago.

For Beyond Good and Evil 2, Ancel and his team wanted a focus on interplanetary travel. “Even on Beyond Good and Evil 1 it was supposed to have space travel and all these things but we were limited,” Ancel says. “The big thing that is really cool is that the consoles are now so powerful [...] The amount of memory the CPU has, you can do those things now. It's not 'Oh, we will never do it.' It's working.”
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Ancel admits that, even if he wanted to make this game a decade ago, other developers are now tackling the same challenges of galactic-scale games. “It's like the gold rush on planets,” Ancel says. “We're looking at games like Star Citizen and seeing they have these big planet systems and thinking 'We have the same problems but we are more advanced on this side, [whereas] they're doing something nice on this side.'”
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Perhaps this inspired a certain mindset with BG&E2. The opportunities for releasing it would have meant compromises and so - despite the evidence of pre-production work surfacing sporadically over the years - the project was never moved into full production. But neither was it cancelled, which Ancel says is thanks to Yves Guillemot and Serge Hascoet, respectively Ubisoft’s CEO and chief creative officer.

“They want these kinds of games to exist,” Ancel says. “When they wake up in the morning they don't want to make money - they've got money for ten lives if they want to stop. It's not a question of power or money now. What reason has this company to live: Is it to beat competitors? No, [Ubisoft’s] already in the top three. It's being able to create things that have never been created before. [Guillemot and Hascoet] are the ones that want to make this happen. They ask the creatives 'You want to do it? We can do it.'”
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http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/11/24/michel-ancel-on-beyond-good-evil-2-and-the-future-of-ubisoft
 
J

James Scott

Banned
There's no reason to make the sequel to a niche franchise whose first entry bombed a massive and expensive game.
Didn't they say to expect it within 3-4 years as well? Isn't this what happened to the original version of BG&E2 which became too ambitious for the old hardware?
Also best forget Laura Kate Dale's Switch exclusivity rumor at this point
 
D

dancrane212

Member
Would love to see the game release but the looming shadow of Vivendi and how ambitious BG&E2 is sounding does have me a bit concerned it won't end up finished. Fingers crossed!
 
C

Corleth the Fey

Member
Doesn't sound like it's Switch only with those comments. I'm glad to hear that. Who knows what it'll be if it ever gets done. At least it's still out there and something positive is happening.

Beyond Good and Evil is such a wonderful game, it deserves a great sequel.
 
A

antonz

Member
There is nothing there that contradicts the sources on exclusivity. Really the article itself doesn't say much that hasn't been known.

It was never a priority project. Multiple times over the years the development assets given to it were taken away to focus on other things. If rumors are true then its finally getting done but not much info really besides them looking at space travel more.
 
O

orthodoxy1095

Banned
Regarding the exclusivity issue that people keep bringing up, if Ancel is really genuinely targeting something with the planetary scope of something like Star Citizen, this game might very well be something for the next generation of consoles anyways.
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
That sounds so good. Reminds me that I need to finish the PS3 remaster.

.la1n said:
Good to hear about Ubisoft leaders encouraging creativity in the market.
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It'll be a shame when they are replaced by Vivendi.
 
S

Shredderi

Member
I just hope that the interplanetary travel is all handcrafted content and not some no man's sky lite type of experiment.
 
A

antonz

Member
orthodoxy1095 said:
And yeah, given the supposed scope and cost, you'd definitely have to doubt them footing too much of the bill :p
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I think you are reading too much into what he is saying. They are not going to make a mmo. They are simply looking at tried and true elements of Space Sims.. Star Citizen happens to be the best example of the genre at this point.
 
M

Mrbob

Member
This game isnt coming out until Switch 2....I feel like we are getting trolled by vaporware when i hear Cancel speak.
 
F

foxuzamaki

Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
I think tou guys are reading way too much into their comments, i doubt they're gonna make a game as ambitious as nms wit the budget of assassins creed
 
O

orthodoxy1095

Banned
antonz said:
I think you are reading too much into what he is saying. They are not going to make a mmo. They are simply looking at tried and true elements of Space Sims.. Star Citizen happens to be the best example of the genre at this point.
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Not really. I don't expect them to literally make a $100 million game like Star Citizen. But it's clear from what Ancel said that he is was apparently waiting to make this game because he had some big vision for the scope of the project.
 
A

AgeEighty

Member
orthodoxy1095 said:
Not really. I don't expect them to literally make a $100 million game like Star Citizen. But it's clear from what Ancel said that he is was apparently waiting to make this game because he had some big vision for the scope of the project.
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Doesn't mean that's actually what it's going to be in the end. And "scope" can mean a lot of things. Every one of us should know by now what a huge mistake it is to take the early promises of a lead developer too seriously.
 
P

phanphare

Banned
James Scott said:
Also best forget Laura Kate Dale's Switch exclusivity rumor at this point
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why? doesn't she have a source (sources?) within Ubi? didn't she report that Nintendo is helping to fund the game? we pretty much know how that goes if true and her track record is solid. plus she is pretty careful with what she shares, seems like she does a good job of properly vetting info before going public.
 
G

Grisby

Member
Well, FF15 and The Last Guardian are coming out within a week of each other...sooo anything is possible.

I don't think you need to have a ton of planets for a proper BGE sequel though.
 
A

AcademicSaucer

Member
I think the insiders saying the development is being paid by Nintendo for it to be a Switch exclusive are wrong, Ancel is talking about power and looking at Star Citizen
 
J

James Scott

Banned
phanphare said:
why? doesn't she have a source (sources?) within Ubi? didn't she report that Nintendo is helping to fund the game? we pretty much know how that goes if true and her track record is solid. plus she is pretty careful with what she shares, seems like she does a good job of properly vetting info before going public.
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Just doesn't feel like it.
I guess it's weird to go with my gut feeling on this when the whole AMD Vs NVIDIA thing happened not too long ago and she was involved, but I don't see Nintendo funding a project this big.
At best I could've saw BG&E2 being a 2D game on the Ubi Art engine allowing them to finish the game with a small budget.
He also announced it himself on instagram, if Nintendo was paying for it then I couldn't see them being ok with that either.
Just a lot of things that don't feel right, also believe Laura said it was aiming for year 2 with a trailer at the reveal event. I guess we'll see if she's right there but I feel there's enough said by the ones working on the game that it's best to cast doubt.
(At least to not be disappointed when this game likely doesn't end up on Switch at all)
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
phanphare said:
why? doesn't she have a source (sources?) within Ubi? didn't she report that Nintendo is helping to fund the game? we pretty much know how that goes if true and her track record is solid. plus she is pretty careful with what she shares, seems like she does a good job of properly vetting info before going public.
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The rumour went from "The game is in development and will be released in 2017" to "The game is in pre-production and will be released in 2018" after Ancel announced in-between that Ubi had finally given the project the proper green light. That's a huge correction with suspicious timing, and given the nature of this interview I sincerely doubt Ancel would have agreed to it if Nintendo were involved but this had to remain a secret until after the debut of the teaser trailer during the Switch event in January (Dale's rumour said "Switch reveal", but let's be generous and assume she meant the media event).
 
C

Claude Augario

Member
This whole BG&E2 thing has evolved into Laura with a hell of a track record vs nobodies on NeoGAF. Let's see if this is her first big stumble.
 
T

thefro

Member
BG&E Switch is supposedly a semi-reboot, so I wouldn't be shocked if the game Ancel is talking about is actually a separate project that just got going.
 
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