There seems to be no break in the unfortunate development of the sequel to 2001 acclaimed action adventure Beyond Good & Evil. The last news is of a tragic nature, as its director, Emile Morel, has died at the young age of forty. No replacement has yet been announced for him.
The news was shared by Greg Hermittant, producer at Ubisoft, on his LinkedIn. He shared a message along with a picture of Emile Morel, to remember "the wonderful moments we had. With no doubts Rayman Legends is my best memory."
No further details have been made available, but the news has also been shared by Morel colleague, M. Gabrielle Shrager, narrative director of the game who said "Emile was so very proud of Beyond Good and Evil 2, the Space Monkeys and his teammates. He will be sorely missed".
Morel had previously worked on several other Ubisoft games, among them he was lead designer on the 2008 Alone in the Dark reboot and lead game designer on Rayman Legends, before working as director on the Beyond Good & Evil sequel.
The game, at this point, has been in development for sixteen years, since 2007. Beyond Good & Evil 2 has also recently broken the record formerly held by Duke Nukem Forever (14 years) for the game that had been the longest in development.
The game was also hit by a recent scandal and several accusations, when in 2020 Michel Ancel, director of Beyond Good & Evil, left Ubisoft following accusations of abuse and sexual misconduct allegations between several of high-level members of the company. Despite this, Ubisoft declared that Ancel hadn't been involved in the development of the sequel "for some time".
This tragic news unfortunately is another sad footnote in the long history of Beyond Good & Evil 2. The team, still, seems well on their way to continue working, also to honor their colleague who recently passed away. We can only hope the game does justice to his memory.