10 Video Game Franchises KILLED By Development Hell
1. Beyond Good & Evil
This entry is not just the longest wait for a single release on this list but the follow-up to 2003’s Beyond Good & Evil is one of the longest waits for a game ever.
Loved by critics and fans when it came to the original Xbox, poor sales caused Ubisoft to reconsider lead designer Michel Ancel’s desires for a Good & Evil trilogy. Nonetheless, in 2008 the studio dropped teasing clips of an in-production sequel.
Over the next few years, despite claims from the company and Ancel himself that the game was still on course, there was talk of internal disputes.
Our first real look at Beyond Good & Evil 2, now a prequel, was a gorgeous and incredibly exciting story trailer that dropped at E3 2017. It was finally happening! Fans were keen to get an idea of not only the release date but what platforms the game would be available on… but nothing came.
During 2020, Ubisoft came under public scrutiny for a flurry of different backstage practices and Ancel was allegedly said to be not an easy man to work with. His constant rebooting of the project caused a string of delays.
He left the studio in September of that year and Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still apparently being worked on at Ubisoft towers without him. Although with nothing new to show for it there’s certainly reasons to doubt that.