Michel Ancel of Ubisoft reveals the philosophy behind Beyond Good and Evil 2, in addition to when the game might release.

In a video interview with French website All-Gamers, series creator Michel Ancel spoke about Beyond Good and Evil 2, which is said to be bigger and better than the first.

The game will feature lots of returning characters, since the team want to retain the spirit of the first game. Despite this, the general presentation will be to a much higher standard. This is because the first game was meant to be more cinematic and they pitched the game as such, but when they got hold of the PlayStation 2’s Emotion Engine they found it couldn’t live up to their expectations. Therefore, they had to limit their vision.

With the current generation the team can create the game they originally wanted to, so in reality, it might look like a different game, but Beyond Good and Evil 2 is the game they always wanted to make.

For these reasons it’s unlikely that Beyond Good and Evil 2 will make it’s way to the Wii, but Michel Ancel wouldn’t rule out some kind of port. He also wouldn’t be drawn on which platforms the game will be released on, but it’s presumed to be PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 will feature gameplay dissimilar to the first game, since they didn’t just want to make the same game with a different story, as that game has already been released. Michel Ancel says that they want to make what they couldn’t last generation, so it’ll be bigger, more immersive and include more investigations. It’s very important that the player feels like they’re in another universe and to make the universe’s limits invisible.

All this means that they have to create new tools and processes to develop the game, which means it’s still in pre-production. The team isn’t targeting a specific release date, as they are focusing more on being satisfied with the tools, and not even Ubisoft is pressuring them. Beyond Good and Evil 2 will take a lot of planning, thinking, engineering and testing, so it’s going to take some time.

Michel Ancel compares their development process to creating a new interface, where you might have a promising prototype, but if it doesn’t work then you’ll have to create something else. You can’t just say it’ll be out soon, because you’re not sure if you’re on the right track.

All in all the team don’t know when they’ll be fully done with the technical side, and until then they can’t really start production, let alone finish the game.

You can watch the interview in the original French by visiting All-Gamers and thanks go to Ramenman of NeoGaf for the translation.