Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still alive — Assassin's Creed Shadows writer joins the project

Nearly 18 years after its original announcement, Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still in development. Ubisoft Bordeaux lead writer and associate narrative director Rik Godwin confirmed on social media that he has been working on the game for the past few months in a support and consultant role — adding a small but concrete sign of life to one of gaming's longest-running development sagas.

Godwin's post was characteristically low-key: "Odd sort of non-announcement but for the past few months I've been working on Beyond Good & Evil 2 in a support/consultant role. I am allowed to say this, I checked." Ubisoft Bordeaux, founded in 2017, has mostly served as a support studio — it led development on Assassin's Creed Mirage and shipped Claws of Awaji, the sole expansion for Assassin's Creed Shadows. Geographically, the studio sits close to Ubisoft Montpellier, which leads Beyond Good & Evil 2, making the collaboration a natural fit.

The game was first announced in 2008, re-announced at E3 2016, and shown off with a cinematic trailer at E3 2018. In 2022 it overtook Duke Nukem Forever in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest game in development. Since then, Ubisoft has sporadically insisted the project is alive — job postings surfaced last year, gameplay footage leaked through an animator's portfolio in September 2023, and characters from the sequel appeared in the Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Edition, hinting at a firmer creative direction. The project also survived Ubisoft's sweeping cancellations earlier this year, which claimed the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake among others. Creative director Fawzi Mesmar, brought in to steady the ship, said at the time: "We remain committed and focused on delivering a remarkable game for our players to enjoy."

There's still no release window, no platforms confirmed, and no word on whether the game will even keep its name. But the fact that it keeps accumulating talent rather than obituaries is, at this point, its own kind of news.