Ubisoft game designer Emile Morel has passed away at the age of 40. Morel, having worked at Ubisoft for quite some time, was most recently working as creative director of Beyond Good and Evil 2. The news, spotted by IGN, was originally posted on LinkedIn by several of his colleagues.
Morel had been at Ubisoft since 2009, having worked on quite a few titles, including Rayman Legends as senior game designer, and Beyond Good and Evil 2 as associate creative director before taking over his most recent role as creative director on the project.
The development of Beyond Good and Evil 2 seems to have been quite turbulent, with a report from earlier this year revealing that management director Guillaume Carmona of the studio working on the game—Ubisoft Montpellier—had left the studio amid reports of burnout, stress, and sickness among employees.
Ubisoft, however, has stressed as recently as January this year that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still under development.