This news just breaks my heart: Beyond Good and Evil Sequel 'On Hold'.
Beyond Good and Evil is a PS2 game that was released with very little fanfare in 2003 into the midst of stiff competition. As a result of the poor timing and lack of advertising the game was a commercial failure. Those few people who bought the game, however, fell in love with the title and before long it was a cult classic.
Jade sneaking around in search of the truth
Briefly, Beyond Good and Evil is an action adventure game that put you in the shoes of Jade, an investigative reporter trying to unearth a massive government conspiracy. Your primary weapons are a Daï-jo and a camera, both of which are equally useful in their own ways. While the game's combination of action and stealth are well-implemented, what made the game memorable was the plot. Jade's journey is both intense and emotional, and if you don't find yourself breaking up at least once during the story then you truly have no soul.
Given my adoration of the original game, I was over the moon last spring when it was announced by Michael Ancel (creative lead) and confirmed by Ubisoft that Beyond Good and Evil 2 was in production. Unfortunately, this summer doubt started to creep in as Ubisoft backpedaled on the previous year's announcement, claiming that no decision to release a sequel had ever been made.
Sadly, this week's announcement that all development work on Beyond Good and Evil 2 has been indefinitely halted and that the title is "on hold" confirms the worst fears of fans. Ubisoft has completed their reversal and now the future of the sequel game is in doubt.
Pey'j, the porcine heroI'll continue to hold out hope that this project will get back on track soon - but I must admit that I'm feeling extremely grim about the prospects right now.
Bonus Content
For those of you unfamiliar with Beyond Good and Evil, I would recommend picking up the title on Steam or Good Old Games. Failing that, at least check out a video or two here:
5 comments:
Both my wife and I loved that game on the Gamecube.
Honestly I don't blame them, BGE 2 would probably have bombed as bad. You can't really make a big-budget "cult" game any more. These days with dev costs there is too much risk, and I think Brutal: Legend may be the next BGE.
If you have an xbox though, pick up Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, another game that bombed as bad as BGE and yet was cult and critically acclaimed.
It's difficult to say how the sequel would/will do. Going into the release there would be a hell of a lot more hype, simply because there is a strong fan/media love for the game.
That said, they'd have to NOT release it into a rush of big name titles this time, and instead carve out their own niche, perhaps during a slower season.
Beyond Good and Evil is a great example of some of the major problems facing game developers. Here's a great game that just got overlooked by a lot of people. It's my common example when people say, "A good game will sell well no matter the other factors."
It also shows the problem of how to define a game that doesn't fit into an existing genre. Is BG&E an RPG? Adventure game? Action game? Stealth game? All of the above? Hard to fit it into a single category at a store, so hard to appeal to fans of existing groups. But, the game was great for the people who did take a chance and play it.
@ Brian-
I am not so sure about all of that. I think Adrew talked about its biggest issue- being released at a horrible time.
Think of it like movies...you may have the best movie in the world, but if you release it during the same week as transformers 3, the final Harry Potter, any movie by Quentin and another "tim burton" movie...guess what? Your toast.
I think every cult game has the "if it is good it will sell". However, it takes word of mouth. Look at something like Final Fantasy Tactics. That game was not huge until two years later after everyone who played it got everyone they knew to play it.
No Hype + bad timing = death with a slim chance of fan resurrection...it is doable, just hard when your marketing team sailed you first launch in a failboat.
If a developer makes a good game, knows it is a good game- then they should take the time to promote it as such...and sadly the fear that developers have of spending extra money on an "iffy" title become a self fullfilling prophecy
Post a Comment