We're still recovering from the shock of last week's news that the fabled GoldenEye 007 Xbox 360 remake / remaster had leaked onto the internet, and now a couple of developers have shed some more light on the game.
Speaking to Ars Technica, artist Ross Bury and programmer Mark Edmonds explained that the team was originally told that they had full approval for the game to go ahead, including everyone at Nintendo, but ultimately it turned out to be a high up (but unknown) Nintendo executive who shut the project down when it was practically finished.
Here's what Ross Bury had to say about the situation:
"When it was put to Nintendo, everyone there approved it, except they didn't check with the one guy who mattered... I believe I was told his response went along the lines of, 'There is no way a Nintendo game is coming out on a Microsoft console."
The outlet later went on to question Bury about whether he thought the game had any chance of seeing the light of day in an official capacity in the future, and he didn't seem too optimistic about it:
"You can never say never, but I think you would have more chance of seeing it [release on Xbox consoles] by changing everything in the game. Maybe a Halo Master Chief-based game."
The full article is a fantastic read, going in-depth on the game's development and the process of how it came to be, including the two developers' thoughts on the recent leak, so we highly recommend checking it out!
What are your thoughts on the situation? Tell us in the comments below.
[source arstechnica.com]
Comments 30
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/02/no_nintendo_is_not_solely_to_blame_for_the_cancellation_of_goldeneyes_xbla_remake
The thick plottens.
@Medic_Alert I think for game preservation sake, the game needs to be on modern consoles.
Wait I thought it came out that MGM was why it didn’t get released?
Damn those Nintendo ninjas..
Goldeneye has long since been a web of he said, she said. If Nintendo was the obstacle I doubt they would be today, maybe they could even put it out on both
It doesn't really matter anymore as it's easy to access and it won't be long before the community finishes the game off and perhaps improves it further. I've had a lot of fun revisiting this and if you have a means of playing this then definitely give it a go
It's a believable story, but I can't imagine who that would have been. It's debatable this would have gone through NCL at all, and the only person there that would have had any real say-so with a third party licensing issue like this would have been Iwata, maybe....but he was still new at the time, and Hiroshi Yamauchi was still closely advising from the outside. That would have been his style, all the way. I can't see Iwata being quite so reluctant if it had the buy-in from his people. Yamauchi, even "unofficially" in charge, would have done it.
On the NoA side, at that time it was Reggie....especially when he was newer I could see him being bullheaded like that, easily. Or if it went over his head, Kimishima at the time still ran NoA (he was later recalled to Kyoto, Iwata took over running NoA as well, and of course Kimishima later became the interim president around Switch launch. But he was only pulled from NoA during the WiiU years. Arakawa was in the role before him briefly in the very early 360 era, but he retired early on in that time.
So I think we're down to, depending on the year and the timing, Reggie, Arakawa, or Kimishima if it ended at NoA. And at NCL, I think Yamauchi, the big man himself, from, technically "outside" but in the boardroom, silencing his enemies one last time.
@Richnj There's so much contradiction about who's responsible for Goldeneye's cancellation. At this point, I'd put the blame on MGM, since they have the rights to the Bond franchise as a whole.
And I thought renewing the movie licensing rights, especially since James Bond actors had changed by then, would have been the difficult part.
I really don’t think it’s “the rights are muddled”. That much energy put into a game before checking with the rights holders? Yeah I don’t think so. I know people don’t want to believe it’s not Nintendo but a) Everything about their history supports this and b) again people wouldn’t spend that much energy on a game that the rights holders hadn’t approved even a little. I mean look at Scott Pilgrim; that has super muddled rights but Ubisoft was motivated to make it happen. Not to mention at that time MS had plenty of money to way in the right directions. No this was Nintendo. Just look at their history.
And given the language I think @NEStalgia was right and that it was someone old school at Nintendo (Yamauchi etc fits the one person that mattered) that said no.
Again you don’t put energy and money into a project without getting those. Further more again Ubisoft got Scott back; you really want me to believe MS couldn’t pay enough money now? I mean that’s can’t possibly cost more than what they spend on studios. And Money talks to those guys. Not Nintendo.
On the other hand, who had a notorious history of not allowing their IPS in anyway out of their control? They’ve sent cease and desist letter over YouTuber names. They have literally stalked people. Stalked people!!!Over DS hacks. I love Nintendo, but do not think Nintendo is a kitten here. If they had wanted to get this project done the combined might of both companies would have made it happen.
This has been an interesting roller coaster.
@mousieone Heck, even today, while -=NEW=- Nintendo may have approved Banjo in Smash, we recently have them buying Astral Chain rights back from Platinum to retain their grip on it. Nintendo keeps on Nintendoing. It's the Nintendo black hole. Content can come in, but content never goes out....
Well, ok, there's that one time. I think it might be better for the human race if it never happens again.
@AJDarkstar It's my understanding that Nintendo sold their rights to Banjo, but did not sell their rights to GoldenEye - if true, the logic/argument you're employing collapses.
@everynowandben they did sell the rights to Banjo because they had to have the MS Logo in Smash, and they needed permission from MS to put Banjo there. There were a couple interviews from both Spencer and Sakurai on the subject.
@AJDarkstar Dude, what the?? It wouldn't make the point of the article null and void in any way whatsoever. Not sure why you would think that...
My point is that Nintendo most likely is the main reason this game was never released (which is what this article is about), and that your point about Banjo doesn't stand as precedence since the starting premises in these 2 scenarios are not equal.
@AJDarkstar No offense but that person isn’t the only one that doesn’t get your point. Nintendo owns the copyright to the Golden Eye game; they do not to the Banjo game, MS does and did.
@AJDarkstar I disagree as Banjo was no longer a Nintendo game at that point, and therefore there is no contradiction since GoldenEye still is a Nintendo game to at least some degree.
@Medic_Alert it’s not archaic to me! 🤬 😆 it’s my favourite shooter! I need it! How did you play it?
@AJDarkstar The problem with your statement is at that point Banjo ceased to be a “Nintendo game”. It went with Rare.
This is why Nintendo bought the full rights to Astral Chain to prevent this if someone like Tencent buys Platinum.
@everynowandben @AJDarkstar actually I think Nintendo still owns those rights. I don’t think they let them expire.
Edit: Okay if the rights expire they just expired recently (Last few years) and at the time this game would have been made, Nintendo would have 100% still owned the rights so it’s not “irrelevant”.
@AJDarkstar It's actually 100% relevant, emphatically so to the specific point about whether or not Banjo, Perfect Dark, etc. set a precedence.
I honestly didn't even know Nintendo really held the rights like that. I don't associate Goldeneye with Nintendo, myself...
Edit: I guess there is more to the story than people realize. Wild stuff.
After recently playing through the 360 version of Perfect Dark for the first time, I've got to say I'd love to play Goldeneye with similar updates.
I think the best bet for this to happen is for Xenia to be ported to Series X|S/One.
https://github.com/xenia-project/xenia/issues/1700
Honestly, it probably could happen now. With Microsoft games on the Switch, I'm sure they could approve it on the condition it comes to Switch too.
What I would kind like in a way is not only a release on XBONe, Series X/S and Switch, but a official release on the 360 just for the hell of it and conclude this remaster's story. We can have the usual XBONE/Series X/S enhancements but it would be a fun throwback for 360 gamers who can dust off their 360s should they desire.
I'm getting a growing feeling someone is simply testing the waters with these drops of bread crumbs to see if the fish will bite. And we seem to be biting. Whatever animosity may have been around back then with Nintendo and MS, should be put aside these days.
Yet at the same time I'm sorely afraid the game will feel very archaic in 2021 and it will spoil any 1997/98 memories I have of the title.
Nintendo's publishing rights expired in 2017. Perhaps Nintendo said "no" to the Xbox remaster around 2008 but if it can't be published in 2021 is probably because of whoever holds the James Bond rights now. Why they don't make a Perfect Dark game with the level design and objectives of Goldeneye 007 or as DLC for the Perfect Dark reboot?
@BlueOcean I don’t if anyone actually wants to try now and publish it now...
Reminds me of Scalebound; too much bad blood.
@mousieone I think that it would be welcome and that the only problem is the James Bond rights.
@BlueOcean I don’t know about that, sure from fans no doubt. From a development side; they’d have to do the work to make it run on a modern console, and also it’s about 95% complete; still bugs that need fixing. Plus whilst I do think there is a rights issue now; I think it’s as easy as just paying more money to release it. But then you have issue of more money invested. Realistically what would you charge? And even if it’s on GP, I don’t see it getting a ton of players. It’s really old and to some that kind of stuff matters. This could easily turn into Atari E.T.
At this point, I’m inclined to believe the current way to play through emulation and for free makes the most sense and makes that community happy.
By the way it’s been awhile
@mousieone My laptop is so old that it doesn't run this leaked remaster and/or the emulator but I'll get one later this year.
Yep thanks for missing me! 😊
@Medic_Alert link dead is there anymore
@Medic_Alert strange when i press on that link it says its been removed can get the xenia emulator but not 007
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