Last week, Beyond Good & Evil 2 creator Michel Ancel told fans to expect a playable beta of the game towards the end of 2019. It was disappointing news, perhaps, for those eager to explore the kind of worlds glimpsed in last year's flashy E3 debut trailer. But it was also news which should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone following the game's still-early progress.
What sort of game will Beyond Good & Evil 2 be? It's still hard to say - a year on from the tech demo shown behind closed doors at E3 2017. Over the 12 months, Ubisoft Montpellier has periodically streamed updates to its loyal followers on Twitch, but these have mostly just been opportunities to share concept art and answer questions. For this year's E3, Ubisoft Montpellier packed a proper gameplay demo in its suitcase, one which showed off co-op play and some early combat and exploration systems - but it was another glimpse which left us with probably more questions than answers.
I'm excited for Beyond Good & Evil 2's story after hearing how the dots connect between the two flashy CGI trailers shown thus far. Likewise, I'm delighted by this year's confirmation BG&E1 stars Jade and Pey'J are back for definite. For those in need of a recap, last year's trailer saw our crew of heroes steal a set of coordinates and set off for something named Moksha's Gate, a mysterious object described by Ubisoft Montpellier as "a door in space", led by a captain who shared a familial resemblance to Jade. This year, we caught up with the crew later on, with the captain mysteriously missing, as Jade herself pops up as an antagonist and seemingly ends the mission to Moksha's Gate for good.