One last Martini to GoldenEye
Microsoft still doesn’t rule out its launch, Activision blames Nintendo too
What you are about to read could easily become the epilogue for one of the most thrilling scandals ever surfaced around one single game. Rare’s GoldenEye 007 has earned public notoriety more than ten years after its original launch without needing the help of gory graphics, politically incorrect subplots or meaningless parent-teacher association demands regarding its contents. It wasn’t even necessary to release the game itself, since its cancellation on Xbox Live Arcade was the cause of all the trouble that came afterwards. It led to an ever increasing range of rumours, different theories, backstage statements and an unexpected media coverage made possible, apparently, by the contributions of one man hidden in the shadows.
Some weeks ago, news website Videogamer revisited the GoldenEye enigma after talking with Rare’s senior engineer Nick Burton at the Game Developers Conference. A downloadable title cancelled nearly one year before is hardly a relevant story at any games event, but as it became evident three hundred updates ago, the guys from Videogamer were more than willing to ask about any possible Rare topic while they had the chance to do so. “The ball’s not in anybody at Rare’s court really,” Burton said, “it’s squarely in the license holders’ courts. It’s a shame. It’s kind of locked in this no man’s land. There’s nothing on Live Arcade, there’s nothing on Wii.” He was referring to the secret agreement between Nintendo and Microsoft that failed back in 2006. Microsoft would agree to let Nintendo launch the game on Wii’s Virtual Console if Nintendo agreed to let Microsoft launch it on Xbox Live Arcade. Nintendo didn’t like the plan.
During this summer’s Xbox Holiday Showcase in New York, product manager Michael Johnson got camera shy when we asked our own questions about GoldenEye. However, other people around the same party were more eager to share their thoughts. “Let me tell you what happened,” said a Microsoft representative who chose to remain unidentified. What he was about to describe was pretty much the same story we all know. Rare started working on GoldenEye XBLA before anybody knew if it was legally possible to release the game; they completed it; Activision, the current holders of the James Bond licence, greenlighted it; and then Nintendo, who share the rights of the original game with Microsoft, refused to give their approval for a joint launch on Wii and Xbox 360. “But the game is finished and it could be released if the situation changes in the future,” our source added. In other words, Microsoft is still willing to release GoldenEye even if it takes a decade for Nintendo to eat up their ego.
Nick Burton didn’t sound so optimistic. “It’s incredibly hard to solve because there’s so many licence holders involved,” he told Videogamer, “it’s just what happens legally sometimes. Not necessarily with games, but you see it with music and films. Things get locked in this legal limbo. Even most of the parties involved, probably all the parties involved want to solve it.” That wouldn’t be the case of GoldenEye, since Nintendo deliberately banned the release even when they got the opportunity to launch the game themselves.
This is a version of the story that even the third party involved backs up. “It’s not up to us, we want to see that game out there,” another source from Activision told us, “you’ve seen it, it looks amazing and we would love to play it. It was Nintendo’s fault.” In fact, the people at Activision should be the first in line fighting for GoldenEye. “You know, they have nothing to lose. It’s only good for them to get it released,” our Microsoft contact said, “they would make a lot of money they are not making the way things are right now.”
In the meanwhile, Nintendo keeps quiet. Ever since the GoldenEye issue heated up back in January, no website or printed magazine on a worldwide basis has been able to get a single statement from them. “It’s probably going to go down in the annals of gaming history as one of the big mysteries,” Nick Burton concluded.
But who started it all? According to Microsoft, it was only one person, a former Rare employee who decided to break his NDA. “Somebody stole a build of the game and then contacted a UK magazine. It was just one person and we know who he is. I don’t know his name, but I guess that right now they are discussing what sort of legal action they are going to take against him.” What this person did may have been a mistake in legal terms, but it was rather understandable given the situation. If it wasn’t for him, we would have never known what a great game Rare re-imagined and what wonderful experience we are missing due to one company’s stubbornness. This was one of those scarce occasions where everybody would have won, starting by the users themselves. It was a rather sad way of ending things that we all deserved to learn about.
We contacted this elusive developer long ago and got an exclusive screenshot which shows GoldenEye’s Dam level as it was and as it could have been, had the game been released. However, both views come from the XBLA remake, since one of its many features allowed users to play the game without HD graphics looking as they did on N64. Take it as the last present from someone who, among other things, made many of our previous GoldenEye special articles possible.
Now that Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie are on its way to the Xbox Live Arcade, Microsoft seems to have moved on and more of Rare’s old NES, SNES and N64 games could see the light of day again. At least, if the 2002 buyout agreement between Nintendo, Microsoft and Rare took place the way we all always assumed it did. “I don’t know what IPs are shared between Nintendo and Microsoft, but there could be more,” our source said. Although it seems highly unlikely, the sole possibility of Nintendo banning future re-releases of Killer Instinct or Blast Corps, both licences currently hold by Microsoft but originally published by the Japanese, sounds scary enough.
Somehow related news
- You only play twice ()
- Did Microsoft cancel Goldeneye for XBLA at the last minute? ()
- GoldenEye 007 XBLA remains cancelled ()
- Microsoft willing to launch GoldenEye XBLA ()
- GoldenEye 007 drama takes the Net ()
28 Comments
I think this was about greed, thedy’d be up for dual release … this is all about who’s got the biggest balls …
Comment by PG Twit — 05.Oct.08 @ 8:40 pm
Nintendo is really starting to wear on me.
Comment by Hamilton — 05.Oct.08 @ 8:44 pm
Damn! It’s almost been a years since the Goldeneye remake footage leaked out and it still pisses me of when reminded that it’s still not out and most likely never will…
Comment by Perfect Dark 0 — 05.Oct.08 @ 9:22 pm
the reason nintendo is doing this is because nintendo is making bags of money with the wii. Lets hope nintendo goes poor on their next system and maybe they will open up the possiblity of this releasing. Until this story was released a year ago i thought nintendo was a nice company. now i realize they are greedy bastards. Stupid nintendo it is 007 not mario I don’t see how you won’t let it releasse on a another system.
Comment by austin — 06.Oct.08 @ 4:14 am
As usual, Nintendo neglects the hardcore gamers for the soccor moms, I am pretty much done buying Nintendo products, this was the last straw.
I only hope that Microsoft and Rare can bring Perfect Dark to the XBLA now.
Comment by The BS Police — 06.Oct.08 @ 6:47 am
What the hell are you oafs on about. None of these comments have anything to do with the article. You’re just pulling nonsense from out of nowhere.
Comment by O_o — 06.Oct.08 @ 8:36 am I was under the impression that this was about Goldeneye? I’ll say whatever I wanna say about this subject whether you like it or not.
Comment by The BS Police — 06.Oct.08 @ 8:59 am
Maybe Nintendo would also like someone to ramp up the graphics to match the 360 version. I’m guessing those graphics are possible on Wii. If not, maybe for their next system. If they can make the 2 releases identical in every way (online, etc.), maybe Nintendo wouldn’t have a problem with it.
Comment by Boffo — 06.Oct.08 @ 9:09 am
HOHOHO!!
YOU DONT HAVE A NINTENDO CONSOLE, SORRY NO GOLDENEYE FOR YOU!!
YOU NEVER PLAYED THIS? SORRY BUT YOU DECIDE TO BUY A PS1!
HEHEHEHEEH
SONY AND MICROSOFT LOOSERS!!!
Comment by MYAMOTO SAN — 06.Oct.08 @ 1:35 pm
You must admit though, wether you like Nintendo or not, they’re such an awkward company. They’ve a long history of being awkward and being bullies. If you read the book Game Over by David Sheff, it’s all in there. Also, Nintendo have been in court a few times for fiddling etc. I think it should go to court, Nintendo will give in. I’m not a fan of Nintendo anymore. They keep knocking out the same wallop every year, it’s last too consoles have been a big letdown. It’s all overrated milarky in my eyes. They can’t have it their own way all the time. Sony will kick its ass with their next console…
Comment by Mr. G — 07.Oct.08 @ 2:02 am
GO Nintendo, Rare you’re traitors
Comment by ACE — 07.Oct.08 @ 6:19 am Ace, how are Rare traitors? It’s not like Nintendo didn’t sell their interest in Rare to Microsoft in the first place.
Nintendo has a long hsitory of back stabbing it’s partners.
Comment by The BS Police — 07.Oct.08 @ 6:10 pm
How is this stabbing, they just want the game to be released on VC and XBLA. The reason why nintendo sold rare is because half of rare joined Eidos and most of them left, so they sold there ass and everbody bitch about it and said nintendo made a mistake. No so many years later, you see that rare only produced crap so nintendo made the good desicion. I hope for rare that the new banjo wil be a good game, to honor there memories but looking at the shit they produces its probally gonna suck. But nintendo sold the crappy people that where left of rare, not the old good games. So if MICROSOFT stopts bitching about it and just let the game come out on both consoles, then there wouldent be a problem.
So if you think before you post, you know who the real bad guy is.
Comment by ShoDan — 08.Oct.08 @ 1:38 pm @ ShoDan, if you actually read the article you would know that Microsoft did intend to release it on the Wii VC along with the XBLA.
Next time get your facts straight, Nintendo is the reason why nobodies playing this on either conolse now.
Comment by The BS Police — 08.Oct.08 @ 6:10 pm
It is no different than the Chrono Trigger remake that was being made for years. It was being made by fans, and not the owners of the license Square-Enix. Lots of fans would have loved to have seen that remake come out but it never will. Nintendo owns the license not Rare so how is it greed that they do not want a rival system to make money off of a game they own.
http://www.opcoder.com/projects/chrono/
Comment by joe — 08.Oct.08 @ 8:50 pm
Haha Microsoft and Activision spent money on a game they didn’t have rights to. Wow.
Why should Nintendo release this game? You think Nintendo would let Microsoft sell an enhanced version of a game while Nintendo gives the old version on its Virtual Console? This is just stupidity on Microsoft and Activision.
Comment by Rich — 09.Oct.08 @ 5:20 am
If anything Golden Eye was originally made for nintendo and no-one else!! Which means that Nintendo has every right to fight against Microsoft! I for one am sad that it isn’t released yet…but I surely don’t want shity XBOX having this classic in their arcade!! GO NINTENDO!
Comment by b1u3b0y — 09.Oct.08 @ 5:51 pm
im glad i have a wii and a 360 it makes life alot easier in my eyes
Comment by midori — 10.Oct.08 @ 5:15 am Here’s my question. How come they can’t just release the game themselves? If Nintendo doesn’t want it their lost.
Comment by Hudson — 11.Oct.08 @ 11:42 pm
with a couple of months we could be playing this
http://www.goldeneyesource.com/
im looking forward to it!
Comment by mike — 16.Oct.08 @ 11:15 pm
He estado en esta web por mucho timepo y con este ultimo articulo de golden eye me doy cuenta de que son un monton de fanboys que perdieron la razon cuando esta pagina paso a ser una pagina en ingles, descartando a nintendo como un mal developer-publisher y llenandolo de culpa por la caida de este maravilloso juego, no me importa si fue su culpa o no, pero ustedes como una web seria no deberian acusar a nadie, sin antes haber mencionado los errores de RARE.
Y asi habiendo ocultado los errores de rare y mostrando mas los de otras compañias (como nintendo y THQ) han perdido una persona que los apoyaba desde hace años. Así me despido…
HunterM33Man3
I had a N64, bought it for Goldeneye….started my love affair with Nintendo, which ended with the Wii! The Wii annoyed me (the controlled just does work for FPS), PS3 was too expensive (and now Sony are only selling an inferior machine to their vision!!) so 360 it had to be.
I was gutted to hear Rare was sold to Microsoft, but the games they have produced have been dire since moving to Xbox’s.
The decision here by Nintendo is understandable in my eyes, even though very disappointing, but I don’t think Goldeneye should now be released….when Nintendo want it for the struggling WiiHD (which will flop big time as HD isn’t needed for the concept of Wii, and Nintendo are too far off the development track now to ever compete with Microsoft or Sony), Microsoft should just buy Nintendo and have done with it.
Nintendo does PS1 still hurt, it should do…..and this is the second time you’ve made a fundamental mistake….good bye!
Comment by Smudge — 24.Oct.08 @ 10:45 am
b1u3b0y you pathetic little fanboy. If you were a true fan of Goldeneye you’d want more people to enjoy the game. Surely you should realise RARE made this game, it was LISCENSED by Nintendo therefore RARE SHOULD TAKE CREDIT FOR THEIR OWN GAME. I used to like Nintendo, but it sold out on people like you, and yet here you are defending the company that doesn’t give a crap about you anymore.
Comment by Anonymouse — 25.Oct.08 @ 9:14 pm MYAMOTO SAN, do you have a lack of knowledge on the English language or are you a retard? I’ve been with Nintendo since the Nes, I had both a N64 AND a PS1- GOD FORBID! Video games are a form of enjoyment, not a f*cking religion.. although you seem to think so.
You don’t ‘choose’ a company and stick with it, you buy what the f*ck you want to buy and you enjoy things for the right reasons. Because of your WONDERFUL GODLIKE company, you will never get to enjoy Goldeneye on the VC anymore.
Enjoy Wii music, you f*cking retard.
Comment by Anonymouse — 25.Oct.08 @ 9:18 pm
Nintendo you greedy bastards.
Comment by BanjoBoy123 — 05.Oct.08 @ 7:48 pm