Beyond Good and Evil 2 May Have Cost Ubisoft More Than $500 Million

Beyond Good and Evil 2 has been in development for around 18 years, and somehow, the long-awaited Ubisoft project is still moving forward. Earlier in 2026, the game survived a major Ubisoft purge that canceled several upcoming projects, including the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, which had been expected to release within months.

Now, Beyond Good and Evil 2 is reportedly approaching an extraordinary development budget of more than $500 million, putting it among the most expensive video games ever made. GT6 will likely increase development costs further, but it's hard to ignore the reported $100 million-plus cost of Beyond Good and Evil 2.

While the game's ambition may have accounted for some of the enormous development cost, the project's long, troubled history seems to have played a major role, too. It's been 18 years, so it's hard to know how much of the game's scope is simply due to the time and resources spent keeping it alive.

In January 2026, creative director Fousy Mesma told fans that the recent changes at Ubisoft had not affected him, the team, or the game. Then, by June, the project appeared to be picking up momentum again, with Ubisoft expanding the development team across several important roles.

The studio opened 16 new positions within two weeks, covering areas such as gameplay, animation, level design, sound, and game design.

These aren't simply support positions, either. Gameplay, animation, and level design roles can indicate that a project is actively building out its content, suggesting Beyond Good and Evil 2 could now be moving into a more structured phase of development.

Red Storm Entertainment also reportedly worked on Beyond Good and Evil 2 before its layoffs during Ubisoft's 2026 restructuring. The studio has worked on a variety of Ubisoft projects over the years, including a new Ghost Recon game, a smaller-scale Rainbow Six project called Slice and Dice, Beyond Good and Evil 2, and other unannounced games still in the conceptual stage.

There have also been whispers of what's next for Beyond Good and Evil 2.

One claim suggested the game could appear at The Game Awards 2026, potentially receive a Switch 2 version, and use an extremely scalable engine. There has even been talk of the project receiving a new title. Those claims remain uncertain, and some of the surrounding information has been disputed.

The more important development is much simpler: Beyond Good and Evil 2 was not canceled. Ubisoft has now continued hiring for the project after a year in which the company canceled multiple games. That suggests the publisher still sees enough potential in the project to keep investing in it.

The original vision for Beyond Good and Evil 2 was extremely ambitious, and you can see that in almost every part of the game's planned design. The game was originally intended to serve as a prequel to the first Beyond Good and Evil, and it is expected to retain that role.

After 18 years, some parts of that original vision will almost certainly have changed. Even so, the core ideas previously shown for the game remain a useful indication of what Ubisoft has been trying to build. Beyond Good and Evil 2 was planned as an open-world experience played from a third-person perspective, with RPG elements and a character creation system.

You would create your own character and begin at the bottom of the game's social system before traveling across different planets, completing main missions, taking on side quests, and gradually becoming more powerful.

The game was also planned around both single-player and cooperative play. You could explore its shared universe with another player, while certain events could affect everyone in the world at the same time, similar to large-scale community events in a shared environment.

That universe was meant to be much larger than a traditional open world. You could journey to other cities and civilizations, visit holy temples, pass through perilous mining worlds, pilot vehicles, and venture into deep space. Exploration would also feature a spyglass tool that could scout areas from afar. You could identify NPCs and potentially recruit them to join your space pirate crew, giving exploration a practical purpose beyond simply discovering new locations.

Combat was planned to be just as flexible.

Your character could use augmented abilities while improving melee weapons, guns, and a jetpack with different modifiers. These could include effects such as time-slowing bubbles and electrical chains, giving you multiple ways to approach encounters.

The game's larger scale was also supposed to extend into the skies and beyond. Aerial dogfights and massive spaceship battles were part of the planned experience, and you could upgrade your space pirate vessel as you traveled through the galaxy.

Cooperative play would allow you to invite another player into your session or join theirs, while NPCs could also be recruited to expand your crew. As you progressed, your ship and its capabilities would develop alongside your character.

All of this helps explain why Beyond Good and Evil 2 has taken so long to make. The project was never meant to be a straightforward sequel. Ubisoft was trying to create a huge universe combining exploration, RPG systems, cooperative play, space travel, vehicles, combat, and a lot of player freedom.

At the same time, 18 years gives Ubisoft plenty of time to rethink those ideas.

The company has released multiple open-world games during that period, including several Assassin's Creed titles and Star Wars Outlaws. Those games have given Ubisoft years of experience with open-world design and RPG systems, plus plenty of lessons about what works and what doesn't.

That could ultimately benefit Beyond Good and Evil 2. If Ubisoft has continued developing the project while applying those lessons, the version eventually released could be significantly more refined than what was originally shown years ago.

The game may also have changed considerably behind the scenes.

18 years is long enough for technology, design trends, hardware generations, and player expectations to change several times over. Some of the original ideas may have been stripped, some expanded, and some replaced altogether.

Still, Ubisoft supporting the project in 2026 is noteworthy. The publisher has been willing to cancel games that no longer fit its plans, yet Beyond Good and Evil 2 survived those cuts and is now receiving additional development talent.

That could mean Ubisoft has already seen enough of the game's current state to believe it's worth finishing. The amount of money invested also makes it clear that the company has already committed enormous resources to the project.

The hope is that those years of development and hundreds of millions of dollars eventually translate into an experience that feels worthwhile, not just expensive. With so much time behind it, Beyond Good and Evil 2 has the chance to become something much more polished than the version first revealed years ago.

The original Beyond Good and Evil has developed a cult following, although it never became a massive franchise capable of guaranteeing millions of sales. That makes Ubisoft's continued investment even more interesting. The publisher is effectively betting on what this new version of the franchise can become rather than simply relying on the popularity of the original game.

There's still no official release date.

But the continued development, new hiring, and survival of Ubisoft's 2026 cancellations show that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still a going concern. Almost twenty years later, the game may finally be entering another important phase. A full release could be several years away, but Ubisoft doesn't seem ready to give up on Beyond Good and Evil 2 just yet, judging by its recent investment.