We have reason to believe that Beyond Good & Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition is ready to release very soon.
As shared by Gematsu on Twitter, new data has been appearing on the PlayStation 5 listing, that appear to be in preparation for a release. Trophies have appeared for the game. On top of that, notes for patch 01.01 have also come up.
You can see the trophies over at Exophase, but we’ll discuss the patch notes here. On the bug fixes side, we see that Ubisoft has improved the game’s overall stability, reintegrated VFX and SFX, and reworked the camera
New features include corresponding visual improvements, such as reworking the 3D models and textures, and performance optimization.
Some QOL changes include the ability to skip cutscenes and adding autosave, although we don’t know how this will be implemented in particular. Finally, there will be an Anniversary Gallery, as well as a Speedrun Mode. Presumably, that later mode passes over cutscenes completely, and possibly compromises on graphics quality to load as efficiently as possible, and give speedrunners the best opportunity to hit the fastest times possible.
Fans had been looking for a rerelease of Beyond Good & Evil for years, but we can’t really talk about that fan demand that much anymore. This release cannot be divorced from the circumstances surrounding it.
In particular, fans are looking at the extended development of Beyond Good & Evil 2, and the unpleasant rumors around it. The investigations and lawsuits filed vs Ubisoft higher ups over their toxic work culture remains relevant, because those claims were alleged to have happened in the production of this game.
So we can’t avoid seeing that Beyond Good & Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition‘s release looks like its intended to change the conversation around the company, as well as to deflect attention away from Beyond Good & Evil 2. If Tom Warren’s rumor is true, Ubisoft has actually been sitting on a trailer for Beyond Good & Evil 2 for years now.
Other rumors we reported on suggest that Ubisoft owners are keeping Beyond Good & Evil 2 alive because they’re using it to help pitch the company to potential new buyers to take them off of their hands. But with all these rumors going on, we don’t have a concrete picture of how far along Beyond Good & Evil 2’s development has really progressed.
With all that said, for the sake of the actual developers doing the hard work making the games, we shouldn’t just dismiss Beyond Good & Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition‘s release completely. If it gets released soon, we do certainly hope it has turned out well.
