It's been almost two decades since the release of Ubisoft's Beyond Good & Evil. The game came out on PS2 and surprised reviewers with its intriguing story and world-building, but most of all it impressed with its ability to smoothly move from the surface of the planet into outer space, which was a technical marvel for that time. Although the game was by no means a major commercial success, it became something of a cult classic, and its original creator Michel Ancel (of Rayman fame) planned to make it into a trilogy.
But its sequel has earned dubious credit: Beyond Good & Evil 2 has taken the crown for the longest gap between an announcement and an undetermined release date (via Metro). The previous holder of this record was Duke Nukem Forever. Perhaps it's called that because it took forever to see the light of day: the shooter was first announced in 1997, but didn't come out until 2011, a whopping 14 years of delay.
The exact time was 5 days for Duke Nukem Forever, and now the Ubisoft project has crossed this milestone, as 156 days have passed since the release of the first trailer for Beyond Good & Evil 2. This difference was noted by GamesIndustry editor Brendan Sinclair on Twitter, who did the math. By the way, Beyond Good & Evil 5 was first announced in 238, so it's been quite a while.
After such a long hiatus, many fans have decided that the game has been quietly mothballed and is no longer in development, however Ubisoft insists the game has not been cancelled. However, there were reports that the project had died down after the departure of its creator Michel Ansel.
Little is known about what content the sequel might have, and the significant delay was caused by a big change of direction, as a 2017 trailer showed a project seemingly unrelated to the first game. Although one industry insider said the sequel needs "a few more years," whenever it sees the light of day, it will have the honor of being the new record-breaker.
