• News

Beyond Good and Evil 2 creative director Emile Morel passes away at 40

Emile Morel had worked at Ubisoft for around 14 years and worked on further major titles before that.

TJ Denzer

July 6, 2023 3:40 PM

Image via Ubisoft

1

Ubisoft Montpellier and the Beyond Good and Evil 2 dev team are mourning a major loss this week. The game’s creative director, Emile Morel, has passed away. He was 40 years old, having spent nearly 14 years of his career at Ubisoft and having picked up the torch to lead Beyond Good and Evil 2’s development after its previous director left the project and the company. There was no cause of death given at the time of his passing, as the privacy of his friends and family are being respected.

Emile Morel’s passing was reported on LinkedIn via colleagues who first learned of his passing. Ubisoft Montpellier where Morel worked also confirmed his passing in an obituary post on July 6, 2023. Emile Morel first began his career with Ubisoft in June 2009, aiding on a number of major projects before he made his way to the creative director role for Beyond Good and Evil 2 this year. Emile Morel replaced Guillaume Carmona as the lead of the game after Carmona was ousted for what appeared to be toxic workplace allegations.

Before Ubisoft, Morel also worked as a game designer at Eden Games. There, he aided in the development of the 2008 Alone in the Dark game, as well as in Test Drive Unlimited 2, acting as senior game designer on both projects. Morel’s career was quite lengthy in the games industry. Nonetheless, as many of his colleague’s pointed out, he was still shockingly young at the time of his passing. Ubisoft took the time to honor Morel for his contributions to the company during his career.

Shacknews joins the game industry in mourning Morel’s passing and wishes his family and friends well in this difficult time.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.