‘Beyond Good And Evil 2’ gets new lead writer 5 years after being announced

15 years into development, Ubisoft’s Beyond Good And Evil 2 has a new lead writer – Sarah Arellano.

The prequel to 2003’s Beyond Good And Evil was first teased in 2008 before officially being announced at 2017’s E3 conference with a trailer, though no release date was confirmed.

Since then, updates on Beyond Good And Evil 2 have been few and far between. In 2020, creator Michel Ancel retired from the games industry but said work on Beyond Good And Evil 2 was “going super well,” before promising “beautiful things to be seen soon.”

However, he said the same thing about Wild which was quietly cancelled in 2021.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Beyond Good And Evil 2 was still in pre-production. It’s now been confirmed that Ubisoft have hired a new lead writer for the project.

It’s my turn to do the thing pic.twitter.com/gS87kZn7UT

— Sarah Arellano (@TheSugarVenom) August 3, 2022

According to her LinkedIn account, Arellano has previously worked as a narrative designer on World Of Warcraft, a writer on the upcoming Saints Row reboot, and was the narrative designer on 2015 MOBA Vainglory.

“We are very happy to welcome Sarah who is one of the latest recruits on Beyond Good and Evil 2,” a Ubisoft spokesperson said in an email sent to PC Gamer. “The development team is hard at work to deliver on the promise made to its community.”

Ubisoft’s Montpellier studio is also currently hiring for a variety of roles to work on Beyond Good And Evil 2, including a gameplay programmer, a level artist, a senior concept artist and a senior game designer, suggesting the title is still very much in pre-production.

In other news, Chinese multinational technology and entertainment company Tencent is reportedly looking to raise its stake in Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry publisher Ubisoft.

Tencent reportedly expressed interest in the French publisher and is looking to raise the five per cent stake it placed in 2018 in a bid to become “the single largest shareholder”.