Count myself among the crowd of gamers that would have killed to see the Nintendo 64 classic Goldeneye make the leap to next gen consoles via Nintendo's virtual console or Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade. But it now seems the dream is officially dead, a bullet between its eyes, and its pants down around its ankles.
Yea, it was messy.
Turns out an agreement was never able to be reached between Nintendo and Microsoft in regards to who exactly owned the rights to Goldeneye, therefore making it impossible for the game to re-release on any one console. Microsoft owns Rare, the developers of the game, but because the game was originally released on Nintendo's N64 console, they own a piece of the pie as well. Basically, the fans are shit out of luck due to a petty money quibble.
For years now there have been information and screenshots leaked of a graphically updated version of Goldeneye that gamers have been pissing their pants over (see below). And to be fair, it did look really good for a higher resolution port of an Nintendo 64 game. But alas, it was just not meant to be.
Rare issued this statement to a curious reader emailing them about the fate of the project:
"That was some time ago, my friend. Fate was against us that day. Destiny conspired to raise the hurdles even as we attempted to clear them, resulting in unpleasant groinal injury. I suspect we're long past the stage where an agreement was on the cards, but you never know. Stranger things have happened… somewhere … probably."
So that's it, Goldeneye is officially dead. Look like the only way to relive those frustrating Natalya escort missions will be through playing the N64 original. Time to move on, much like Rare has done.
