Beyond Good & Evil 2’s troubled development was due to “passionate managers” not getting along, the series’ creator Michel Ancel has said.
The sequel to the cult classic adventure has been in development for almost 20 years (the longest in history), and has continued despite Ancel leaving Ubisoft back in 2020 due to retirement. His departure followed an investigation into allegations of toxic leadership by French newspaper Libération.
Ancel has not spoken publicly about the game’s development since, but in a new interview with French outlet SuperPouvoir he has now discussed some of the tensions and accusations made against him.
Passion is a “fabulous energy”, said Ancel, but can also lead to clashes. For BG&E2, he stated how the game’s art director had wanted to redo everything over and over, that the game’s director had wanted a game of generated dungeons, while he “dreamed of a space adventure”.