BG&E sequel to be "more accessible"

By Robert Purchese Published 30 May, 2008

Ubi wants to appeal to casual gamers.

Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot has said Beyond Good & Evil 2 will be "more accessible" so more casual gamers will want to buy it.

He was speaking at the recent UbiDays event, where the very first teaser trailer for the game was shown.

"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," Yves Guillemot told Next-Gen.biz.

"We think the game was probably a little too difficult for the general gamers at that time. We're going to make it more accessible and make sure that it's really done for the new generation that's come into videogames."

Beyond Good & Evil was an action adventure game that appeared back in 2003, and had you taking pictures and hitting people with sticks as main character Jade - who is friends with pigs.

Creator Michel Ancel has said on more than one occasion that he would like to revisit BG&E, although how different the sequel will be is yet to be seen.

Still, excitement and that.

Find your way to our Beyond Good & Evil review to find out more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (71) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • wiper #1 4 years ago

    But... Beyond Good & Evil was one of the most accessible games I've played! Simple controls, simple mechanics, forgiving gameplay... not sure what they could really do about it. Perhaps get rid of/make simpler the stealth sections? Ah well. Be interesting to see what they come up with, anyway.

  • Farfarer #2 4 years ago

    Ok, I was looking forward to this game.

    Oh, well :/

  • Quint2020 #3 4 years ago

    Wii exclusive then?

    Lame.

  • JonFE #4 4 years ago

    Das ist no good... Hope they don't mess this up.

  • neilka #5 4 years ago

    Minigames.

  • Zerimski #6 4 years ago

    ...Ah.

  • Prodigy_BE #7 4 years ago

    Wiper is right.

    Action Adventure was just totally unpopular then.
    And BG&E has a non-commercial set-up (Jade will always sell less copy's than Kratos or some other bloodthirsty bloke.


    But still, Ubisoft, just do a proper sequel. BG&E has a cult status, it WILL sell.

  • woodnotes #8 4 years ago

    Do we know what console this is for?

  • Kami #9 4 years ago

    +1 to BG&E being one of the most accessible examples of it's genre ever made. Forgiving, compelling, interesting, polished.

    If they kept close to BG&E's original path, there'd be no issues here... oh UbiSoft, what you giveth with the one hand you bitch-slap us with the other...

  • krudster #10 4 years ago

    Making anything for the lowest common denominator might make good business sense, but it sure as hell doesn't give it much chance of being any good.

  • Kostabi #11 4 years ago

    Ubisoft has just filled me with rage.

    I never completed BG&E but that's only because I hit a game stopping bug in the PC version about 3/4 of the way through, but even still, to call the game any other than super accessible is stupid. All they need to do is produce more of the same now that action adventure games are popular again.

    How can one company get so out of touch?

  • mikew1985 #12 4 years ago

    :_(

    Please Ubisoft, don't make the above sadness happen...
    Edited by 1 at 30/05/08 @ 13:54

  • Milbe #13 4 years ago

    By "more accessible" I hope they mean streamlined controls, HD gfx and removing frustrating gameplay sections instead of dumbing it down for the masses.

  • Razz #14 4 years ago

    o_O

    BG&E is one of the most accessible Adenventure games I've played. Why change a working formula?

  • alimokrane #15 4 years ago

    Oh dear god no ...... NO NO NO NO!!!

    f you're aiming for casual, then go release it for Wii and dont whet our appetites for nothing.

  • The_Inquisitor #16 4 years ago

    I hate Ubisoft. The more money they have, the more money they crave. Kinda like a drug addiction.

  • Kluff #17 4 years ago

    I sure hoped they wouldn't do that.
    On my wish list for a sequel there's one point called "more challenging gameplay".
    BG&E might have been a fun experience, but all the context-sensitive options made the solutions, the necessary actions often too obvious.

    Give me a key to jump, a key to fight.

    While context sensitive actions aren't necessarily a bad thing and can make the experience more slick and natural I felt that they went a bit too far with it in BG&E.
    Rayman 2 had more fulfilling, more challenging, more fun gameplay.

    I have a revolutionary idea: include two difficulty settings, one for casual and one for core gamers. It would be a sensible choice and not a dumbing down to the lowest common denominator!!

  • NetworkError #18 4 years ago

    Why oh why would they make it more accessible?! The first one was perfectly balanced!
    Please don't mess it up Ubi!

  • LHH #19 4 years ago

    And BG&E has a non-commercial set-up (Jade will always sell less copy's than Kratos or some other bloodthirsty bloke.

    Well I guess they could stick in a mini skirt with a thong showing and some huge, barely contained tits.

    "Beyond My Lingerie" ..

  • NthSimulachum #20 4 years ago

    Er...how exactly? The controls were simplicity, but wonderful. The means for entering text was particularly ingenious, unlike GTA4's fucking qwerty police computer.

  • tobsen #21 4 years ago

    "We think the game was probably a little too difficult for the general gamers at that time."

    Talk about somebody getting it completely wrong. I see a tragedy in the making... or probably a farce.

  • JeroenZM #22 4 years ago

    Beyond Good and Evil: Warrior Within?

  • [menace] #23 4 years ago

    I don't understand the outrage - seems a bit premature - it might still be good even if its a bit easier overall.

    As you can tell I'm pleased with this news.. but I'm obviously in the minority here. I like to relax when I play - and it might also mean that my son can play it without any stupid difficulty spikes - and if they get rid of all the stealth missions too I'll be happy with that also.

  • Freek #24 4 years ago

    By "more accessible" I hope they mean streamlined controls, HD gfx and removing frustrating gameplay sections instead of dumbing it down for the masses.

    I think/hope that's what they're going for. More like the new Rainbow Six games and not the Raving Rabbits games.

  • Deepo #25 4 years ago

    Just keep the charm, feeling and sense of discovery, and I'll be a happy rabbid.

  • Kluff #26 4 years ago

    Sorry, but my sister is the very definition of an unpractised casual gamer, and BG&E appealed to her.
    The game didn't flop because it wasn't streamlined or simple enough.
    Maybe it flopped partly because it wasn't marketed to this "casual" audience.
    Well, I have no idea why it didn't sell well, but I hope Ubisoft doesn't jump to the wrong conclusions and dumbs the game down. BG&E was one of the easiest games I've ever played. Any less challenge wouldn't be any fun.
    Edited by 1 at 31/05/08 @ 00:34

  • smelly #27 4 years ago

    "casual gamers"

    GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!!!!!!! Its going to be fucking a load of fucking mini fucking games isnt it? Fuckers.

  • MyPointIs #28 4 years ago

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...... but, but BG&E WAS already casual!!!

    Does that mean the same team that gave feedback about Haze will give feedback about BG&E???

    That they will punch the game in the face until people who hates those games can play it???

    /cries

    Well, back to BG&E 1.
    Edited by 1 at 30/05/08 @ 16:40

  • Cheapshot #29 4 years ago

    I KNEW there was a catch to this... Ubisoft burn in hell.

  • Golgo #30 4 years ago

    It was fairly short, dead easy, had cartoony characters and mini-games (excellent laser hockey). What else can they do?

  • Schwabing #31 4 years ago

    the cruelty of bringing BG&E back and then hinting that it'll be rubbish is inhuman....
    previous comments are right, it was extremely accessible in terms of gameplay
    it did seem to disappear off the shelves (poor marketing?) pretty sharpish though - perhaps he means you'll actually be able to buy this one ;-)

  • hoster #32 4 years ago

    Y'know that bit in the teaser trailer with the pig sucking in the flies? 10 Euros says that forms basis of an interesting minigame that involves waving around the wiimote to....

  • Dynamize #33 4 years ago

    "I will make my game more rubbish so it will sell more!" says rampaging Guillemot.
    /facepalm

  • theindustrialone #34 4 years ago

    "We think the game was probably a little too difficult for the general gamers at that time."

    Utter crap. Both of my brothers played the first game to completion, and they are definitely in the "general gamers" bracket.

  • Sar #35 4 years ago

    Oh stop whining you bunch of jessies.

    It'll be great anyway, because the original's brilliance lay in its charm and humour, and Zelda like gameplay. So what if it's a bit easier? Maybe more people will get to the end then.

    I wonder if Pey'j is still infected?

  • HermitArcader #36 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • smelly #37 4 years ago

    The first game was released in JANUARY with fuck all advertising..

    .. And they think it's because it wasn't "casual enough" and that's why it didnt sell?

    (bashes head against brick wall)

  • arcanis22 #38 4 years ago

    While I do consider myself a fairly hardcore gamer I honestly don't think I'm a better than average player. That said I found the first game EXTREMELY easy and accessible. I have no idea what they've got in mind to make it more casual-gamer friendly but I have to say it makes me a bit nervous.

    I also have to say that it actually really bothers me how many games have been spoiled recently by devs making them more "accessible" for "casual gamers". I understand they want to make something that appeals to that market but is alienating the other market really fair?

    EDIT: Woops I think I just made pretty much the axact same point as Vertical Stand. Sorry
    Edited by 1 at 30/05/08 @ 19:17

  • Scimarad #39 4 years ago

    Uh-oh

  • freedumb #40 4 years ago

    Oh dear. Is this Warrior Within all over agin?

  • ZuluHero #41 4 years ago

    i can only hope that ubisoft actually read boards like EG. Do you feel that Ubisoft? That's the earth tilting of its axis as millions of fan's jaws hit the floor collectively.

    Stop and think about that for a second will you?
    Edited by 2 at 30/05/08 @ 20:59

  • ZuluHero #42 4 years ago

    "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"

    No you don't. We're still all here and we're trying hard not to be bitterly disappointed at this new revelation. First you dangle the bait in front of us(with the trailer yesterday), but now you're dipping it in an entirely different fishing hole...
    Edited by 1 at 30/05/08 @ 20:59

  • Siberian_Khatru #43 4 years ago

    Just push it harder this time Ubi. Maybe with that other Jade girl you have.

  • BartonFink #44 4 years ago

    Ah bollix, looks like all the calls for 'please do not fuck it up' have fallen on deaf ears.

    :(

  • BartonFink #45 4 years ago

    I take it this also means there will be a Wii version ;)

  • turtl311 #46 4 years ago

    Please Ubi don't do this. I will not bear to look at the destruction of one of my favourite games ever. We don't need more casual games, and making BG&E more casual may ruin it - I just hope they don't make Pey'j not infected so that the casual crowd can 'catch up with the story' and there is still a laaaaaaarge market that does not involve casual gamers (GTA IV anyone?).

  • OrgasmicMutton #47 4 years ago

    I'll echo the general "but BG&E was accessible" crowd. It was perfectly balanced, it was lovely.

    Still that hasn't dented by excitement for this game. As long as the world still looks nice, the characters well drawn, the story compelling and the gameplay fun then I'll be happy; even with a decrease in difficulty. I don't generally play action adventure games to suffer some sort of intense challenge; I like some memorable difficult sequences (see BG&E's final boss fight - which was quite challenging) but I prefer a more manageable pace which the first game pulled off nicely.

  • Spikeman4 #48 4 years ago

    Please don't make it easier Ubisoft, I loved the original BG&E but i still thought that was a little too easy...

  • growleroo #49 4 years ago

    It was a lovely game - accessibility itself! The only thing that needed addressing was the slightly wonky controls in the hovercraft. Or maybe I just needed to learn to drive the thing...

    Just, please god, no quick-time-events.

  • djed #50 4 years ago

    lol ubisoft.

    also, jade is way hotter than kratos.

    and ZULUHERO, i'm sure someone at Ubisoft read gamer boards, but I don't think the EG ones are high up on the list, except perhaps for comedy relief every now and then ("lol, the GTA4 review has over nine thousand replies..";)

    edit: uh, i just realized that the EG boards are probably high on UBI's list. It would explain alot.
    Edited by 1 at 31/05/08 @ 11:29

  • Kluff #51 4 years ago

    I have the feeling that Ubisoft reached the wrong conclusions why it failed.
    I mean, he said that the audience was a different one when the first part was released......they developed more for that.
    Now they try to appeal more to another, to the casual audience (though I had the feeling they exactly did that with the first one, but I guess they know better......). How should that mean more success then?
    I don't get it.
    Developed for core audience when it was big --> fail
    Developed for casual audience when it got big --> ?

    Maybe BG&E was "too casual" for the core market and that's another additional reason why it didn't do so well at the sales front.

  • beckyh #52 4 years ago

    There was nothing wrong with the difficulty of the original Beyond Good and Evil. I am an average gamer and as far as I am concerned it was perfect.

    IMO I think the only thing that caused the flop of sales was the marketing. I think the box art was totally wrong. Well I think it was quite nice box art, but when trying to appeal to a wide audience a picture of a girl on the front weilding a camera is not exactly punchy. I remember at the time a few friends said it made the game look "kiddy" and they avoided the game. I convinced them to try it and they loved it. So personally I blame the original box art. They need to make it more exciting and not give that kiddy feel, after all it was not really a kiddy game anyway.

    To end, I repeat what someone else has said, please Ubisoft, no quick time events. I know they are the trend nowadays but I just find them annoying and destracting from normal gameplay. They need to do nothing to changeit from the original. The sandbox gameplay was just fine.

  • SomaticSense #53 4 years ago

    “We saw with Beyond Good & Evil that so many customers were extremely happy with the game,” said Guillemot. “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 it more accessible and make sure that it’s really done for the new generation that’s come into videogames.”

    I'm getting fucking sick with all this crap from devs spouting "we need to cater more for the casuals", especially with the above comment as it makes no sense. There are at least the same number of core gamers out there, that number hasn't decreased, it's just that there are more casual gamers than there used to be meaning more gamers overall to share the profits with. I'm getting tired of the focus on casuals, as if suddenly core gamers are a dying race. If anything, there is the potenial for more core gamers with the casuals getting more drawn into the hobby of videogaming.

    Fair enough though, BG&E didn't sell in herrrruge amounts, but stating the above and developing the game to cater more for the casual crowd, and effectively ditching the - in his own words - "customers (that) were extremely happy with the game", will have a big chance of coming back to bite them right square on the arse if their marketing isn't spot on, by losing the sales of those dedicated gamers as well.

    Oh, but all that's forgetting the fact that the first BG&E was (and still is) one of the most accessible games out there anyway, which actually struck a chord with the casual and young gamers who I made a point of showing it to. The answer is not to change the game, but to intelligently MARKET THE DAMN THING. Accessibility means precisely jack shit to the non-gaming mag/site reading casual gamer without good and accurate marketing, as the first BG&E proved.

    I swear that most devs/publishers are getting stupider by the day......
    Edited by 1 at 31/05/08 @ 16:54

  • smelly #54 4 years ago

    It wont be the devs.. it'll be the marketing men.. And I can almost guarantee the marketing men are forcing this down the devs neck (same as they took control with PoP: Warrior Within).

    Unfortunately the marketing men run this industry - but ironically its them who know the least about it..

    Personally I dont think this mythical "casual gamer" even exists..

    The marketting twats just look at the wii selling well and think "ooh, people are prefering gameplay over graphics .. that MUST mean that there's more casual gamers than hardcore who only like pretty graphix (tm)"

  • HermitArcader #55 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • turtl311 #56 4 years ago

    I agree with you guys

  • TriggerHippie #57 4 years ago

    Dont aspire to mediocrity UbiSoft. It doesn't need to be any more accessible than, say, Twilight Princess :)

  • peppergomez #58 4 years ago

    good old consoles, dumbing things down progressively each year

  • peak_performance #59 4 years ago

    Modern gaming: Featuring backwards evolution since 2002.

  • doragor #60 4 years ago

    I found both the hovercraft and the camera irritating to control and the stealth sections were poor. Maybe I'm a hopeless but if they take some of the (mild) frustrations of the first one out, I"ll be happy.

  • kangarootoo #61 4 years ago

    I call shenanigans on this one. The first BGAE was as accessible as any game of its type can be. Everyone I know who played it, from hardcore to first time gamers, found it absorbing from the start and easy to get into.

    However, the marketing exposure it got was utter rubbish. THAT is why it didn't sell. PoP:SoT suffered the same problems, though sales of that picked up in the end. Seems to me like the marketing muppets who f*cked up the fitst time don't even know that they fucked up (or they are trying to pretent it wasn't their fault), and are operating under the illusion that the poor sales were the fault of the game and not their own idiocy.

    Grrrr. I really hope it still turns out ok, and it probably will, but there is a principal at stake here which is that people should be simply able to do their jobs effectively, without trying to blame the product they weren't able to pitch properly.

  • nightsparkle #62 4 years ago

    Beyond Good and Evil: Warrior Within

    the game was already very accessable, too easy even. if it turns out the game is even easier than the first one, i won't buy it. i promise

  • nightsparkle #63 4 years ago

    yeah, the problem was in the marketing. judging from the box and also reviews, i thought the game was about making pictures. that's just something on the side

  • InsoFox #64 4 years ago

    I sort of agree with the others who have said that BG & E wasn't exactly an inaccessible game to begin with.

  • InsoFox #65 4 years ago

    I don't exactly get the 'Warrior Within' comments though. The problem with WW wasn't the gameplay. That was fine. It was just that it changed the atmosphere of the original game that worked so well.

  • SomaticSense #66 4 years ago

    ...... in order to cater more for the casual crowd.





    It is a fairly valid comparision really.

  • SixFootHalfling #67 4 years ago

    "We think the game was probably a little too difficult for the general gamers at that time"

    I'm sorry but a blind 4 year old with no arms could have completed BG+E without too much trouble, so how exactly are they going to make it easier; "click this button to win"?

    "...and if they get rid of all the stealth missions too I'll be happy with that also. "

    WTF?
    I'm sorry wasn't that the point of BG+E, that the main character wasn't able to simply blast her way through millions of enemies?
    If you don't want the stealth parts that just leaves a puzzle game that's too easy.

  • InsoFox #68 4 years ago

    I wish people would stop using the phrases 'hardcore' and 'casual' anyway. They're rubbish.

  • Meho #69 4 years ago

    A little late to the party, but just to chip in, in case someone from UBI actually reads this:

    Yes, BG&E was one of the most accessible and user-friendly games around. It had simple, intuitive controls, it had a variety of gameplay styles, it had great mini games, plus it had absolutely fantastic presentation. Its failure can be only attributed to marketing: it's not that the 'core' gamers only bought the game because the 'casuals' found it difficult, it's that the 'core' gamers were the only ones who actually knew what it was and what it was about. Because they read the sodding reviews at the sodding gaming websites, you know.

    The problem is not accessibility. It never was.

  • 3william56 #70 4 years ago

    I feel like someone who took Angelina Jolie home to find out that it was Eddie Murphy in a fat suit.

    Sh*t marketing cannot be to blame, cos that would mean some high up suit in Ubi f**ked up. Oh no siree.
    It's the AUDIENCE'S fault. Obviously.

    We should have seen this coming when Ancel talked about not having funding. He's been forced to pimp out Jade for some Ubibucks.

    Big t*ts, guns and exploding helicopters here we come.

    /cries

  • stallion185 #71 4 years ago

    The first game got almost zero marketing and the genius developers think that it sold poorly because it was too hard? What an absolute joke! How were people forming these "too hard" opinions if they never bought or even knew about the game???
    Edited by 1 at 03/06/08 @ 04:05