[Intrepid Homoludens]

Ancel working with small team on Beyond Good & Evil 2 | Joystiq

Earlier this month, Ubisoft assured fans that Beyond Good & Evil creator Michel Ancel was still with the company, and still toiling away at the sequel to the beloved action adventure game. Ancel himself emerged at the Montpellier in Game conference, detailing the development a bit.

Ancel told attendees that he's working on a 3D version of the toolkit being used to make Rayman Origins. "It takes a bit longer," he said, "but we're very keen to use this system with this game, because it's an ambitious game and we want to create something exceptional."

Another factor that is stretching out development time: "On this game, we're keeping the team small," he said, "to preserve creativity and so the game doesn't become a commercial product, so that it has soul." This also has the added benefit of keeping the budget low, limiting the chance that Ubisoft will cancel it. Unfortunately, it also limits the chance that Ubisoft execs will know it exists.

Beyond Good & Evil 2 teaser | Ubidays 2008
Beyond Good & Evil leaked trailer

I hope Ancel can at least negotiate a robust marketing budget for this game, that it may have a better chance at being more aggressively out there for the mainstream media to pick up on and more imaginative advertising campaigns, in ways the first BG&E never enjoyed.

[SoccerDude28]

This is a little bit promising, but I hope the game doesn't end up being axed.

[booB]

Clearly it will be up to the fans to help market this game as much as possible. I'm game.

[SamandMax]

I think this game could easily be a hit, a lot has changed since the first game came out in 2003. Video game journalism is primarily online now and I think that will make it far easier for the press to undoubtedly praise the virtues of the game and constantly let everyone know about it. Combine that with prevalence of social media and it's almost a guarantee that a great game will get attention on the internet. Enthusiasm is infectious, and if you're constantly hearing how great this game is, you'll be drawn to it.

Not only that, but Ubisoft has changed a lot in the 7 years since the first game. They've become one of the biggest developers and publishers in the world and their name on a game means a lot more now than it did back then. Plus, they're now extremely rich, and since they already know there's a lot of anticipation from some for this game, I don't see why they wouldn't put a good chunk of money behind it. Judging by the quality of what they've shown so far, it seems like they've already given it a bit of financial backing.

This one seems like a far easier thing to market as well. The darker, post-apocalyptic setting could be used to draw people in and, as Fallout 3 proved, being a sequel to a long-out-of-the-spotlight franchise doesn't really matter. I really think if you shipped this game out in early fall before the big games of the holiday season came out, you could easily squeak out a surprise hit like Borderlands and sell a good amount of copies by the end of the year.

[ozzie]

Sure it could be a hit. Everyone who played it loved it or at worst just liked it. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time got TV spots when it came out, why not Beyond Good & Evil?

[Origami]

Game will be hit confirmed

[SamandMax]

If Ubisoft want to drum up some buzz for it, they should attach some sort of trailer to the Assassin's Creed game coming out this holiday. Brotherhood's guaranteed to sell at least five million units, if they could even get some of those people to check out a really cool video for BG&E2, that'd get a lot of people interested and talking about it.

[booB]

Originally Posted by SamandMax

If Ubisoft want to drum up some buzz for it, they should attach some sort of trailer to the Assassin's Creed game coming out this holiday. Brotherhood's guaranteed to sell at least five million units, if they could even get some of those people to check out a really cool video for BG&E2, that'd get a lot of people interested and talking about it.

It's probably much too far off to consider advertising it just yet. Considering how few people are working on it, and how slowly they're working, I'm guessing it will be at least 2-3 years before it hits the shelves.

[maladroid]

http://www.zavvi.com/games/platforms.../10052931.html

This is so cruel