Beyond Good and Evil 2 Director Emile Morel Dies at 40

Beyond Good and Evil 2 creative director Emile Morel has died at age 40. Word of Morel's death was first shared online on Wednesday when former colleagues posted tributes to the director after working with him at Ubisoft on Beyond Good and Evil 2 as well as past games he helped ship. Ubisoft has not yet put out a statement addressing Morel's death. 

IGN first reported on the death of the Beyond Good and Evil 2 director after Ubisoft colleagues shared posts on LinkedIn that included tributes and fond memories shared with Morel. The cause of death is unknown at this time.  

"A cherished colleague for over a decade at Ubisoft Montpellier, we laughed and wept through good times and bad, and shipped a lot great games together," Morel's former colleague M. Gabrielle Shrager wrote on LinkedIn. "Emile was so very proud of Beyond Good and Evil 2, the Space Monkeys and his teammates. He will be sorely missed."

"You've been such a great and kind partner during all these years at Ubisoft," read another post from Valiant Hearts: Coming Home producer Greg Hermittant. "I'm grateful to have worked with you on so many projects. Even through the most difficult times, you always remained the caring and supportive person you were with your beautiful positive mind.

Morel began working at Ubisoft in 2009 and has been working on Beyond Good and Evil 2 for a number of years in various roles before ultimately serving as creative director. He worked on Rayman Legends, too, and prior to Ubisoft, he worked at Eden Games on Test Drive Unlimited as well as the original Alone in the Dark.

Despite Ubisoft largely staying silent on Beyond Good and Evil 2, the game is still in development. It was formally announced in 2017, and per our most recent update on the game from Ubisoft after the company canceled numerous projects, it was said that "development is underway" which meant that the long-in-development game had not gone the way of other projects that had been canceled. 

Ubisoft has not yet put out a statement regarding Morel's death, but we'll update the story accordingly if that changes.