Following the announcement from Beyond Good & Evil creator Michel Ancel earlier today that he's leaving the games industry, Ubisoft has provided an update on the development of Beyond Good & Evil 2.

The company echoes that Ancel hasn’t been directly involved in the game for some time now, "as the team have been hard at work building on top of the solid creative foundation he helped shape."

"The team’s collective strength has us well on our way to developing a flagship next-generation action-adventure game. We recently passed an important internal milestone, delivering a build that proves our Space Pirate Fantasy and offers hours of gameplay and an incredible level of freedom in a seamless online sandbox, building upon the promise of our tech demos shown at E3."

As for what's next, Ubisoft is still expanding the dev team (including the recent addition of Ubisoft Paris as a partner studio), and hopes to show fans the game in action "sometime next year."

"We know many of you are eager to hear more from the team, get more detail on the story and universe, and try out the gameplay. We’re equally excited to share all of that with you, but we will take the time needed to get it right. We want to go beyond the high expectations you have of us, and that we have for ourselves."

Thoughts on this? Are you excited for Beyond Good & Evil 2? Let us know in the comments below.