Rare: GoldenEye revival long dead

By Robert Purchese Published 21 September, 2009

"Long past" agreeing with Nintendo.

Rare has said the chances of striking a GoldenEye revival deal with Nintendo are slim, and have been for quite some time.

"That was some time ago, my friend," the developer told an inquiring fan for a Q&A on its official website.

"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," added the developer.

Rumours of a GoldenEye revival for PSN, WiiWare and XBLA rose and sunk early last year, as talk of an agreement swirled around the internet, only to be crushed by a flattered Microsoft.

Exactly what Rare is up to at the moment is unclear. Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie were regurgitated onto XBLA, as will be Perfect Dark later this year. Rare is also knee-deep in Xbox Avatars and presumably Project Natal for Microsoft, although on what specifically we do not know.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • BabyJesus #1 2 years ago

    It sucks that this won't happen.

    I still bring out my old N64 sometimes and play this, it is still excellent and has aged like a fine wine.
    Edited by 1 at 21/09/09 @ 09:15

  • gav_and_the_gavster #2 2 years ago

    I'd love JFG on XBLA please with updated dual stick controls, a recharging energy system and remove the tribal rescuing requirement for one of the ship parts and replace it with something fun.

    And LIVE enabled multiplayer of Jeff and Barry racing :)

  • insincere_dave #3 2 years ago

    I doubt the PS3 could could run Goldeneye at a decent framerate to be honest.

  • lambtron #4 2 years ago

    Nooooooooooo.

    :(

  • JohnnyWashnGo #5 2 years ago

    Does anybody actually want this to happen?

    If I had to choose an N64 game to play again it would be Jet Force Gemini. Goldeneye never really interested me.

  • Natversion1 #6 2 years ago

    I can't see how bringing this out couldn't be good business, every single decent gamer I know would buy this.

  • spekkeh #7 2 years ago

    Well in all honesty, Rare nowadays is nothing like the Rareware back then.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #8 2 years ago

    Seeing the Jet Force Gemini poster in Banjo-Tooie got me thinking about the prospect of a JFG with proper dual-analogue controls. I really wanted to like it, but the awkward sticks / buttons move-and-shoot put me off at the time.

  • bad09 #9 2 years ago

    What's that? You don't want to sell it? Oh....OK..

    / goes back to Project 64

  • Pirotic #10 2 years ago

    They are pretty much working on Natal exclusively at the moment, both software and the libraries.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #11 2 years ago

    TBH, as much as I love GoldenEye, and as much as it had the better single-player game, I'd rather see (and am therefore looking forward to) Perfect Dark. The multiplayer was better, with all the botmatch options, shooting range, etc. It's still my favourite multiplayer game OF ALL TIME!!! and I'm hoping it's just as good on XBLA.
    Edited by 1 at 21/09/09 @ 09:37

  • CallousB #12 2 years ago

    "I can't see how bringing this out couldn't be good business"

    It would be a good business move from Microsofts point of view..but not from Nintendo's. 360 would get the HD version with online multiplayer/voice chat..Wii would get the basic emulated N64 game...so obviously the 360 game would be seen as the one to get. From Nintendo's point of view they would be giving a competing machine a system seller.

    They should really forget the home console versions and do a port for the DS as Microsoft and Nintendo are not competing in that space.

  • peterfll #13 2 years ago

    ^
    Why not release it on all formats? Everyone's a winner!

    Still looking forward to Perfect Dark.

  • AphoticCosmos #14 2 years ago

    I can't see how this isn't a good idea. Take probably the most beloved FPS of all time, spruce it up a bit and give it to a new audience. . . not hard, is it?

    I thought that there was a mod for HL2 coming out anyway?

  • Xerx3s #15 2 years ago

    Out of all the games rare made, they made 2 shooters. Aren't the other 2 gazillion shooters out today enough for you? How about some diversity? I wouldn't say no to a rare shooter but quite frankly, games like JPR, BK3 & VP show that any game they make will be loaded with awesomeness.

  • Wolverfrog #16 2 years ago

    Ocarina of time kicked the hell out of Goldeneye.

  • scouserfuller9 #17 2 years ago

    With the GB featuring in BK1 and a doll of DK in BK2 I reckon there was some deal between Microsoft and Nintendo for all the current N64 games being released on the XBOX 360 so far. At the same time though I don't think the deal was for the games to appear on the Wii. It was just for cash.

  • actionfitz #18 2 years ago

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

    /geek tears.

  • WinterSnowblind #19 2 years ago

    A Natal based Viva Pinata 2, was brought up on their Twitter page a few weeks back.

    Perfect Dark was the better game than Goldeneye, but it's a shame they can't sort anything out to bring it over. It seemed it was going to be released under the name "Bean", perhaps even as an expansion for Perfect Dark. All they'd really need to do is port over the single player levels, and drop the Bond liscence.

    I wanted to see it happen, just because it would be a hilarious "screw you!" to Nintendo, if they simply released the game as 'James Bean'.

  • Floppy #20 2 years ago

    I enjoyed Goldeneye greatly; but was of it's time, and really hasn't age well after you take your rose tinted specs off.

    May I join many in saying: Forget Goldeneye, forget Pinata games, please re-release Blast Corps on XBLA!

  • Xerx3s #21 2 years ago

    "Ocarina of time kicked the hell out of Goldeneye. "

    What a pointless comment.

    "All they'd really need to do is port over the single player levels, and drop the Bond liscence. "

    It's not that simple. Licences often cover a lot more than simply the name. There is a good chance that the locations, character models, sounds, visual style, etc. is all in the format book and thus protected.

  • Paulie_P #22 2 years ago

    I second that call for Blast Corps - loved that game!

  • sneetch #23 2 years ago

    @Xerx3s
    "Ocarina of time kicked the hell out of Goldeneye. "

    What a pointless comment.

    I know, may as well say "Cheese kicked the hell out of Chalk".

  • layleeloo #24 2 years ago

    LEAVE IT ALONE!!! It was such a classic that holds so many good memories for people that the only thing they will do if they even try anything and attach the goldeneye name to it, will be to utterly ruin the class game that it was. The only thing they would be able to do nowadays is make it prettier. So if they wanna make the exact game again but prettier then go ahead, other than that - leave it well alone!

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #25 2 years ago

    360 would get the HD version with online multiplayer/voice chat..Wii would get the basic emulated N64 game

    They could do it as Wiiware rather than on the Virtual Console. But that would involve active work on a rival home console by a company contracted by Microsoft Game Studios (probably 4J again, rather than Rare themselves), and I could see Microsoft refusing on those grounds.

    Also, Bobby Kotick of current Bond license holders Activision isn't exactly going to play ball, is he?

  • lavalant #26 2 years ago

    One of my favourite games of all time. Goldeneye was much more than just an FPS.

  • cheekyjay #27 2 years ago

    There's no mention of the fact that, even if they were able to win over Nintendo's approval, there'd still be the small matter of securing a licensing deal with Activision over the Bond license. Let's be honest - this won't be happening, not legally anyway.

  • zakrocz #28 2 years ago

    Shouldn't the headline of this article read "Rare: Revival long dead"

    When was the last time they actually made a top quality game... got to be over 10 years ago now.

    Talking of Jet Force Gemini, just imagine a remake on current gen machines, that would be so awesome!!! What a great game that was.
    Edited by 1 at 22/09/09 @ 12:31

  • hypersp #29 2 years ago

    @AphoticCosmos there is and its out right now, its actually brilliant, but theres hardly anyone who plays it, but that was 6 months ago, maybe its changed

    link