Ubisoft confirms that Beyond Good and Evil 2 will still happen for the 30th time.

Ubisoft told us in June for the 29th consecutive time - yes, we counted - that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still in development. This game has been in development since 2008. Today, we bump up that number by one. It's now a nice round 30, thanks to the new creative director of the game, Fawzi Memar. Ubisoft claims he has launched more than 20 successful games.

Mesmar's LinkedIn page shows that he assumed the role of creative director for Beyond Good and Evil 2 this month. Ubisoft confirmed this in a Kotaku statement.

"With over 20 years of experience as a creative director and award-winning designer, he has been instrumental in the launch of more than 20 video games," said a representative. "Mesmar collaborated previously with the Beyond Good & Evil team as VP Editorial. In his new position, he is focused on building upon the vision of our late friend, Emile Morel."

After working on titles such as The Adventures of Tintin and Rayman Legends, Morel became the creative director of Beyond Good and Evil 2 by 2023. He died soon after at the age 40. In a February report by Kotaku, Morel was promoted to creative director of the project following an investigation into the high levels of burnout at Ubisoft Montpellier.

The report by Kotaku says that two sources indicated that the game recently made a good impression while passing an internal milestone. That's not much, but at least it's a sign that the game is still--well, maybe not kicking, but at least twitching occasionally. The Kotaku article says that two sources said the game recently made an impression while passing a milestone internally. No, it's not a lot, but it's at least a sign that the game is still alive.

Ubisoft's biggest challenge is that Beyond Good and Evil 2, as it stands, needs to be much more than just completed. It must be good. A game that people can point out and say, "No, this didn't need to take so long. Let's be honest; that ship has sailed for years." Anything less is, to put it bluntly, just another Skull and Bones. And given Ubisoft’s current struggles, that is the last thing they need.

Even if Beyond Good and Evil 2, does meet this high bar, it might not make any difference. It's obvious that the time frame is an issue. Any game that can help Ubisoft turn its fortunes around needs to be released now, and not in three or even four years. The hard truth is that a good game isn't enough anymore. Prince of Persia The Lost Crown was a critical success, but it didn't translate to big sales. The development team has been disbanded. What Ubisoft needs is a big hit. These have been elusive in recent times.