15 years after announcing the sequel, Ubisoft is gonna try to remember how to release a Beyond Good and Evil game with a new edition of the first one

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

There are 29 separate entries on PC Gamer's list of times Ubisoft has assured everyone that it's still definitely, totally, 100% working on Beyond Good and Evil 2, and yet somehow the prospect of that game coming out seems more remote than ever. But cheer up, because the first game is still quite excellent, and a recent leak from the ESRB—the US game ratings board—suggests that we're due for a new version of it imminently.

Spotted by Twitter user Knoebelbroet, a listing for "Beyond Good and Evil 20th Anniversary Edition" is live on the ESRB's website right now, and is marked as coming to PS4, PS5, Switch, modern Xboxes, and, yes, good old Windows PC. There are even links to storefronts where you'll presumably be able to buy it, although none of them lead to proper purchase pages right now.

Actually, that's not quite true, but I don't think Ubisoft intends for me to buy the 2018 edition of Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil that pops up when I click the Amazon link.

Honestly? That's pretty much all the news there is right now, unless you count the "Rating summary" that just sums up the same Beyond Good and Evil plot you know and love from 2003. Nevertheless, I'm more excited by this than I probably should be. I loved the original BG&E. It was something I picked out basically at random at a shopping centre as a kid after my parents caved and agreed to buy me a game. The fact that it was actually brilliant came as a total surprise.

Although I've long abandoned any hope I had for the second game, the first has held a place in my heart ever since. The ESRB doesn't give any information at all about what kind of thing this 20th anniversary edition is going to be, but I have to imagine it's some kind of quick and (relatively) easy remaster. That suits me fine. The current version of BG&E you can buy on Steam is more than a little awkward. It runs at HD resolutions, true, but it's filled with blurry fonts and textures, players report numerous bugs, and there's no controller support.

If whatever this new version is—presuming it's real and not just someone at the ESRB getting real confused—only fixes that stuff? I'll be pretty content. That is unless Ubisoft does something buckwild like charge £50 for it, but I probably shouldn't give anyone any ideas.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.