There's finally some news about this...

There's this recent video interview with Michel Ancel, where he first says nothing about a new Rabbids game (seemingly the one that has now been announced), and then goes on to discuss the first BG&E's inspirations and some BG&E2 tidbits.

Source: http://www.all-gamers.fr/index...ien-plus-encore.html

It's from a french event, so obviously it's all in french.

Basically about BGE2:

* A lot of returning characters, they really want to keep the spirit of the first game and the same atmosphere/topics (medias, army, etc). However, the general presentation will differ (nothing more than what we saw in the teaser).
He explains the reason for that is, the first BGE was supposed to be much more cinematographic to begin with. He remembers when they were making a document for Sony about BGE1 to get a developpement kit, they had to say why their game was original and different from the others, and the first words of the document were things like "immersive" or "finally we get to feel like in a movie while playing a game", and then then when they received the kit, playing around with the hardware they realized Emotion Engine wasn't as technically awesome as it was promised or at least not awesome enough for what they had prepared, so they had to tone down their vision of the game to make it possible on the 128bits.

Now with the next gen consoles they have the necessary horsepower to do what they originally wanted to do.
He says that even though to the public it may seem like a different game, it's really what they wanted to do at first, and it totally keeps the spirit of the first game.
The universe will be a lot more dense for example.

* Interviewer asks if that means they're automatically ruling out the Wii. He says there's always a possibility of ports or even specific versions for "those consoles", but right now their focus is on next-gen (note : next-gen obviously refers to this gen. Yeah, I know.).
Asked if the title is scheduled to be a 360/PS3/PC mutliplat, he doesn't say anything relevant either.

* Also :
Interviewer : "Is it a direct sequel or more like 10 years after or something" ?
Ancel : "Well that's a nice thing to discover when you'll play it"
Ancel : [laughs]

Though he does say it is a continuation of the first one's story, with lots of references to its key events.

* The game is still in pre-production.
Gameplay-wise, the game will be different from the first one. If they were to make the same game with just a new story, the game would already be out as they've been working on it for more than a year and a half.
They want to do what they weren't able to do last gen. The game was supposed to be bigger, more immersive, it was supposed to have more investigations, etc. and that's still their exact focus. They really want the player to be in another universe, and make the limits of said universe seemingly invisible (note : if you played the first one, you know it had a much more clever approach to exploration limitations than invisible walls, that's what they're going to push forward).
All of this means they have to invent new processes, new tools (all from a technical standpoint). They're not going "we need that game out in 2010 so let's do as much as we can in that time frame".
They know what they want, and the actual developpement of the game won't begin as long as they're aren't satisfied with the tools they have. (note : So apparently Ubi as an editor isn't rushing anything, which is always nice to know.) It takes a lot of planning, a lot of thinking, a lot of engineering, a lot of testing so it takes a lot of time.
He compares it to the creation of a new camera system, or Nintendo's new interfaces. Sometimes you have a promising prototype, but it doesn't really work well, so you don't know if it will be able to do what you want, and if it doesn't you'll have to create something else, so you can't tell people "okay it's coming !" because you're not even sure you're on the good track. Basically, they don't know when they will be done with the technical stuff, so they don't know when they'll begin the actual production, let alone when it will be finished.

That's why they don't have a set release date.



He also explains the commercial failure of the first one. I can translate that too if you ask politely.

Sorry for any typo/grammar crap or ****ty edit I may have left in there.

Edit : It's here now :

quote:

The interesting bit is when he says that they didn't put a great emphasis on the communication/marketing side because the first Rayman is a game that sold almost "on his own".
A new character, a new universe, good critics, and it sold a lot.
And they though it would be the same for BGE. "It was the team that made Rayman, it also had the new characters and universe, so we thought it would work out the same way"
"We overlooked the fact than, ten years or so after the first Rayman, obviously the market was very different, and we didn't realize the marketing side of things was so much more important than it was back then".
"Ubisoft was looking at the sales, waiting for them to pick-up, not knowing if they should up the marketing dose or not, and there was also Prince Of Persia at the same time"

So that's why it bombed.

He adds that even though it was a disappointment (obviously), the team didn't live it as a terrible failure or anything. They knew the game was great by the critics, they hadn't rushed it to the market.

When asked if it will be fixed for when Beyond Good & Evil 2 releases, he compares the two games.
"When we first showed the game (the first BGE) at E3, we had absolutely zero feedback from the press. They had to cover a lot of games at the same time, big blockbusters and highly anticipated games, and BGE wasn't one of them"
The difference is, he explains, the game has now kind of snowballed along the years, and people are actually asking for BGE2, it's now an anticipated game, and a lot more players know about it.
So the first one, even though it failed at first, acts like a pedestal for the next one.

Source: All credits for translation and all goes to Ramenman on NeoGaf: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=357298

All I can do is

Not as much over here.

No tools chosen after two years in pre-production...

"It's done when it's done" - will we finally get our personal "Duke Nukem Forever"??

I just saw this on Destructoid.

Great post Zap!!

But please... please Ubisoft, please give us the new BG&E on PC!

Dammit, if it's still in pre-production it might take a while before we see any screens/scenes of it.

But a game that feels like a movie? OMG!

"A game that feels like a movie" - the idea isn't new, and so many games have been released bearing that slogan. Those which actually DID feel like a movie definitly lacked interactivity.

Still, I'd like to see Ancel's approach. Soon.

HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!



I'm soooo happy right now!!!!

I read that we might get some updates on E3! Can't wait!!!

I really hope they don't take that testing process for too long though

This game is gonna rock!

ok 2010 isn't a long time since we wait to much , ireally want that gamme the first one was good but i think this will get the best game year when its out

quote:

Originally posted by Gypsy816:
I just saw this on Destructoid.

thanks , uubi start to leak some info's that mean we will had a trailer soon

quote:

Originally posted by zako94:

quote:

Originally posted by Gypsy816:
I just saw this on Destructoid.

thanks , ubi start to leak some info's that mean we will had a trailer soon

Please try to avoid triple posting.

sorry i was excited about news cause i dont see any in a while

Thanks for excellent info. Oh, I love the fact that they're not rushing this game, that's the way game should be made instead of trying to rush and meet the schedule! On the other hand, I'd love to play it as quickly as it's possible, but I somehow trust Michel and I know it's the right thing to do.