Gamernode: News - Beyond Good and Evil 2 will be more 'accessible'

Beyond Good and Evil 2 will be more 'accessible'

Category: Industry, Posted: 06/02/2008 at 11:34AM CDT by Eddie Inzauto, Senior Editor

Ubisoft The gaming community has cried out for a sequel to the sleeper hit Beyond Good and Evil ever since its release way back in 2003. Finally, that muted yet persistent plea is going to pay off, because Ubisoft president Yves Guillemot has announced that a follow-up is indeed on its way. Judging from what he has said, however, Beyond Good & Evil 2 may not be the game everyone has been hoping for.

Speaking at the Ubidays 2008 media event in Paris, Guillemot had this to say:

"We saw with Beyond Good & Evil that so many customers were extremely happy with the game. We had a different audience at that time. We had more core gamers than casual gamers than we have today."

"We think the game was probably a little too difficult for the general gamers at that time. We're going to make [Beyond Good & Evil 2] more accessible and make sure that it's really done for the new generation that's come into video games."

It appears that Ubisoft has thought long and hard about Beyond Good and Evil's lack of sales the first time around, and are hoping to avoid succumbing to the same fate twice. By appealing to the rapidly growing "casual" market, however, will the company be alienating the very audience that has wished for this sequel since day one? Will this sequel come across as "dumbed down" to the seasoned gamer, or will it manage to appeal to both groups?

[via shacknews]

Posted by sig220 on 06/02/2008 at 12:01PM

I havn't even played the first game (I plan to though), but that makes me angry. Why do developers feel the need to make games easier? I want some challenge in my games.

Posted by Eddie R Inzauto on 06/02/2008 at 12:17PM

The first game was fairly easy...

Posted by Garcian Smith on 06/02/2008 at 12:17PM

I'm sorry, Ubisoft, but it wasn't the game's difficulty that made it sell badly, it was the pisspoor advertisement campaign (or lack thereof). Anyway, they don't need to make it ANY different to BG&E because now that it's achieved almost legendary status it'll sell like hot cakes!

However, they'd have to turn it into a Mario Party style game for me to be truly angry, 'cause any more Jade and Pey'j is excellent news to me.

Posted by lskennedy on 06/02/2008 at 02:03PM

there were some tough parts, and for some reason i got hung up at the boat part, so i said screw this, and stopped playing it.

Posted by lskennedy on 06/02/2008 at 02:04PM

Edit: it was still an awesome game, the whole thing was sooo much fun. i got it for my pc, i should install it again...

Posted by Quasar on 06/02/2008 at 05:27PM

Part of the fun of BG&E were the puzzles and such. And now they're going to dumb it down? I guess I'll be passing on the sequel if that's the case. Wasn't any harder than anything else during that time.

They have a winning formula--why change it? The game failed because the marketing department made it look as though it was a Mario Snap clone instead of the excellent action-adventure game it is. Worst job ever in marketing a game.

Posted by Disc0 on 06/02/2008 at 09:58PM

I hope they're just talking about the learning curve and unique mechanics of the game. To be honest, I wouldn't miss some of the picture/orb/whatever collecting aspects of gameplay, and I'd be happy to see the maps dumbed down a little bit--running around getting lost isn't much fun.

As long as they keep the level of storytelling and puzzle-solving on par with the first game, I'll be happy, even if it's not a blockbuster.