Beyond Good & Evil 2 is yet another E3 surprise that may never be released

"This is day zero of Beyond Good & Evil 2," says Michel Ancel... predictably.

Beyond Good & Evil was one of the biggest surprises of E3 2017, shocking fans who've been fed nothing but scarce scraps of information since a teaser trailer released way, way back in 2008.

Director Michel Ancel's game has undergone a lot of changes since then. It's now a prequel, it won't star the original game's heroes and in terms of how it plays, Ubisoft is envisioning something vastly different.

Ancel and his team have been talking up ideas of a game that will be set in an online world, and include elements of role-playing and procedural generation. Most crucially however, he said: "This is day zero of Beyond Good & Evil 2."

Ah.

Fourteen years on from the cult classic original and this sequel is back to sqaure one of development. Ubisoft's impressive trailer hinted at it, but Ancel's comments confirm this is a game that's years away and fans are back to being in for a long wait.

This happens all too often at E3. Two years ago Sony made waves with the announcements of Shenmue 3 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake, but even now neither project is likely to see the light of day any time soon. Last year it was Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding.

Ubisoft aren't the only culprits this year. Nintendo announced Metroid Prime 4 with no more than a logo, and Pokémon for Switch didn't even get that. Neither game is going to be released any time soon. Only Pokémon has even the slightest chance of being out by the end of 2018.

Fans might whoop and cheer when these games are announced, swept up in the bleary-eyed frenzy of E3, but many are sick of this practice and publishers know it.

Bethesda's big E3 announcements were for two games out later this year, following on from the successful reveal of Fallout 4 two years ago, just a few months before it released in November 2015.

Sony's disappointing showing at this year's event can be attributed to the company recognising this trend, and the part it has played in it. After years of focusing on major games nowhere near release, and years of exclusives suffering delays, Sony were left little choice other than to tread water so previously-announced games caught up with the here and now.

When video game companies jump the gun like this they inevitably grab headlines and create excitement, but when the realities of game development catch up, that can all-too-easily turn into frustration and disappointment.

Attitudes are changing however, and fans are getting wiser to these troubled developments and weak promises.