GoldenEye XBLA stuck in 'no man's land'

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Aug 6th 2008 at 3:30PM }

Having foiled countless doomsday devices, monologuing masterminds and aesthetically pleasing assassins, James Bond has felt the bite of reality and become inextricably entangled in a web of legal nonsense. Though an Xbox Live Arcade version of the classic N64 FPS, GoldenEye, continues to make appearances both in dreams and alleged screenshots, nobody's been able to pull the game out of a web spun by numerous lawyers and license holders. "It's kind of locked in this no man's land."

That's according to Rare's senior software engineer, Nick Burton, who recently discussed the game's fate with VideoGamer.com. "It's incredibly hard to solve because there's so many licence holders involved," explained Burton. "You've got the guys that own the license to the gaming rights now, the guys that have the licence to Bond as an IP, and there are umpteen licensees." Last time we checked, "umpteen" was quite a lot ... at least 37 or so.

Burton goes on to explain that the game's release is no longer in Rare's hands -- it's up to the publishers to figure out how Microsoft can get its hands on a Nintendo game starring one of Activision's favorite characters. "It's probably going to go down in the annuls of gaming history as one of the big mysteries."

Wait ... the "annuls" of gaming history? What an appropriate misspelling.

Tags: Activision, Bond, GoldenEye, James-Bond, Microsoft, N64, Nintendo, Rare, XBLA, Xbox-Live

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

samfish @ Aug 6th 2008 3:35PM

Jeez, just put the damn thing on VC/WiiWare, XBLA and even PSN so Sony can't raise a stink over it, either.

Mode~7 @ Aug 6th 2008 3:45PM

Yeah seriously, Goldeneye is a game so good every gamer should be able to play it. Just put it on every available format and let the fanboys be united as we bask in it's almost ridiculous amount of Bond flavoured awesomeness.

007craft @ Aug 6th 2008 3:49PM

man I agree. Patents, copyrights, licences, trademarks, sure these things all protect people and their work, but they also have held back the technological evolution of the world by hundreds of years.

No I dont have the solution, but theres got to be one. I just cant see people still having a fret over ownerships and stuff 2000 years from now. Imagine the aliens like predators dealt with this sort of stuff. They deffenitly wouldnt be so advanced and there would be no human hunting.

Situations like this just hurt everyone who cares about a life experience (entertainment, in other words us gamers), by denying us something fun that has been created :(.

Duke @ Aug 6th 2008 3:53PM

"man I agree. Patents, copyrights, licences, trademarks, sure these things all protect people and their work, but they also have held back the technological evolution of the world by hundreds of years."

Wait. Are you serious? You gotta give me examples of how we have been held back 100's of years.

Vidikron (FU) @ Aug 6th 2008 4:17PM

That would nice, but I could see Nintendo still throwing a fit. MS would want to add online multiplayer, leaderboards, and possibly update the graphics whereas Nintendo would likely want to just emulate and cash in. In the end their release would look bad in comparison.

Luke @ Aug 6th 2008 4:20PM

The dark ages set us back at least 300.

Martin Bormann @ Aug 6th 2008 4:25PM

You realize that part of the patenting process is to make public your inventions so others can improve upon them, right?

And you really think that people who have invested time, money and effort into creating something are just going to give it all away for nothing so you can just have fun?

In case you think otherwise, corporations, no matter how much you imagine they care about you and your life experience, just want your money.

Duke @ Aug 6th 2008 4:48PM

People voted that comment up?! Wow

Vcize @ Aug 6th 2008 5:58PM

While it's impossible to know what's really going on, when this was a hot topic a few months ago the rumor was that MS's proposal was exactly what you're describing (minus the PSN part). They were willing to have it released for both the Wii and 360 at the same time, but Nintendo said never on any non-Nintendo console.

007craft @ Aug 6th 2008 6:17PM

Yes i know the corporations only care about the money, thats what im saying. If some1 invented a car today that runs on air, his (or her) main concern, along with others, would be how to profit from it, or how to keep profiting for not having it replace our current gas engines. Profit profit profit. Because of this, society will now never see this car, or at least not anytime soon.

What im saying is that money and greed is what is holding everything back, and there has to be some solution. Some sort of huge change made to society, so a member can build/create something, and give it away, simply to help others, while not having to worry about having to sell his creation to feed his family. And no, communism is not the answer either lol.

We just need a big change. Just imagine real far into the future now, 50 000 years. Do you really picture a world like today, just more technolically advanced? Like the movies portray? People still going to their 9-5 jobs? Eating a 50k aniversary big mac at Mcdonalds? playing their nintendo VRx3000s? I dont. I picture something completely different. I cant really explain what it is. Think about it. *Plays sci-fi type music

Dr. Stabbingworth @ Aug 6th 2008 6:35PM

"And you really think that people who have invested time, money and effort into creating something are just going to give it all away for nothing so you can just have fun?"

Yeah, it's really great now. Nobody can play it and nobody is making money of it. Lose, lose. I hope they're all happy. Dipshits.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Aug 6th 2008 6:49PM

I can't believe someone used the example of not being able to play Goldeneye as an argument about how patents are holding back technological innovation.

It's just a game.

Shaq-Fu @ Aug 6th 2008 9:21PM

Actually samfish, Sony only holds the movie rights for Bond. Activision would have to give it their stamp of approval (if its even required), since they now have the game rights

jpoppyz @ Aug 7th 2008 10:32AM

no, goldeneye WAS an amazing game. If you play it now it just sucks because its like 10 years old. Not worth going through the licencing problems to release it. There are better old FPS games worth porting. Outtrigger? Perfect Dark? Why haven't we seen those on live marketplace? i don't get what all the hooplah is over goldeneye. Seriously, go play it and tell me if you'd honestly spend more than $10 on it after you get over the nostalgia. Not to mention, all the licencing and what not would probably make this one cost around $15. it's NOT WORTH IT.

F1 & The day I beat Ghost and Goblins @ Aug 6th 2008 3:37PM

Every time something like this happens I die a little inside.

Riptor820 @ Aug 6th 2008 3:38PM

Damn it, I just want to play GoldenEye again.

baby sea tuna @ Aug 6th 2008 3:38PM

Damn shame, but this game's time has come and gone. Let it go.

Or just buy an N64. You can probably scam one and a copy of the game for whatever it would go for on XBLA.

Joeshie @ Aug 6th 2008 5:27PM

Agreed. This game might have been pretty good when it was released, but it has not aged well at all.

Remember kids, nostalgia is a very deceptive liar.

Duke @ Aug 6th 2008 3:40PM

I thought we all more or less accepted this was dead a few months ago.

McWeen @ Aug 6th 2008 3:41PM

Maybe if they rerelease it my friends will play it with me again. :( no one will play N64 with me.

BIGGEN (LIVE-PSN: BIGGEN1103) @ Aug 6th 2008 3:42PM

i remember being amazed by this game because it was the first game where you shoot at something, and it actually left a bullet hole! i shot at a wall for hours.

Anticrawl @ Aug 6th 2008 5:31PM

I loved how you could melee in the game and break glass, destroy ammo crates so your enemies couldn't get ammo and blow up the explosive crates and hide in them. Plus they had all sorts of sweet ass hidden walls, you could shoot out monitors and TVs, and you could use remote mines! I fucking loved the remote mines. Turn on the infinite ammo cheat, play the archives level and load up all the glass rooms with remote mines. Awesome explosions with glass shards. Good times indeed.

Kye - Me_DF @ Aug 6th 2008 6:39PM

I loved that if you shot someone in their leg they would limp. And if you shot them in the hand they would shake their rists.
I used to see how many times I could shoot someone in the hand before they did something happened.
Also loved having to try to kill someone before they set off an alarm.

good times.

(52 - 0 my personal best one on one death match)

ZenGaijin @ Aug 6th 2008 3:44PM

I just really hope that if it does come out its more than just a graphical overhaul. There have been alot of advances that have happened over the past decade that Goldeneye needs to implement.

I have fond memories of the game but I tried to go back in play it a year ago.....not the easiest game to come back to.

syrik zero @ Aug 6th 2008 4:16PM

I think if they change too much it will just be another FPS. I want to play this game again for nostalgia feling alone. I bring my 64 out time to time and play that along with perfect dark and some other classics. But no matter what they change it will never be a game that you can play for 8+ hours straight again.

syrik zero @ Aug 6th 2008 3:44PM

Someone still thought it was actually coming to XBLA? I really wish it would. But I already have accepted that it never ever ever will.

Snowblind @ Aug 6th 2008 3:45PM

According to a developer over at Something Awful the game was actually up on Partner Net and ready to be released, before Nintendo told Activision that they wouldn't be allowed to publish anymore Wii or DS games, if they released Goldeneye for the XBLA.

How true that is, I don't know, but it's at least from a reputable source..

samfish @ Aug 6th 2008 3:48PM

Yes, an anonymous person on a forum is quite reputable.

BigD145 @ Aug 6th 2008 3:48PM

Something Awful is "reputable?"

Duke @ Aug 6th 2008 3:50PM

"According to a developer over at Something Awful..."

You do know where this falls apart right?

ZenGaijin @ Aug 6th 2008 3:50PM

I actually remember hearing people on 1up talk about seeing the game on partner net for awhile on one of their podcast.

It still stings but I think what sucks most is we knew there was a chance it would come out.

Snowblind @ Aug 6th 2008 3:55PM

It wasn't an annoymous person, like I said, it was an actual developer, I just don't feel like going back to digging up the topic.

And you guys realise that Something Awful has the biggest message board on the entire internet, where many developers, publishers and other industry workers post.. right?