According to Wccftech, Ubisoft just posted a new job listing for a technical sound designer specifically for Beyond Good and Evil 2 at their Montpellier studio. This comes almost 20 years after development first began in 2008 when the game received its initial public tease. The position involves implementing audio systems across all aspects of the game including sound, music, voice, weapons, and vehicles under the Audio Director’s supervision. Key figures have departed throughout the troubled development, including Managing Director Michel Ancel leaving in 2020, Managing Director Guillame Carmona departing in 2023, and Creative Director Emile Morel passing away in 2023. Despite this, the project continues with new Creative Director Fawzi Mesmar appointed last year, and the series saw a 20th Anniversary Edition release in 2023 developed by Virtuos Games.
This is development hell, plain and simple
Look, hiring a technical sound designer this late in a game’s lifecycle is… concerning, to put it mildly. We’re talking about a position that handles fundamental audio implementation across weapons, vehicles, interfaces – basically the core gameplay experience. If they’re still filling these roles after nearly two decades, how close to completion could this game possibly be?
The leadership carousel keeps spinning
Here’s the thing about losing three key directors in such a short timeframe – it completely resets creative vision every single time. Michel Ancel was the original visionary behind the franchise, and his departure in 2020 was massive. Then you lose another managing director and your creative director passes away? That’s not just bad luck – that’s institutional instability. Each new creative lead probably wants to put their stamp on the project, which means reworking, rethinking, and basically starting over aspects of development.
What exactly are they building here?
And let’s talk about scope for a minute. Ubisoft calls this one of their “AAAA” games – whatever that means. But when you’re still hiring for technical implementation roles after this long, it suggests either massive feature creep or fundamental technical problems. Are they building something so ambitious that it keeps breaking? Or has this become one of those perpetual development projects that exists more as a jobs program than an actual shipping product?
Time for a reality check
Basically, at this point, I’d be shocked if Beyond Good and Evil 2 ever sees the light of day as originally envisioned. The job listing itself reads like they’re still building core systems rather than polishing a near-finished product. After 20 years, multiple leadership changes, and what appears to be constant restructuring, what are the odds this ever becomes a coherent, finished game? Sometimes the kindest thing a publisher can do is put a project out of its misery.
