Ubisoft pulls fan-made GoldenEye Far Cry 5 levels after copyright claim
We've been expecting you.
Ubisoft has pulled GoldenEye levels a fan made in Far Cry 5 after a copyright infringement complaint.
YouTuber Krollywood spent two-and-a-half years recreating Rare's seminal N64 first-person shooter inside the level editor provided within Far Cry 5, but this week Ubisoft removed the levels from the game's arcade mode after a copyright infringement claim reportedly issued by MGM.
All 18 GoldenEye campaign levels were remade and made available to play by anyone in Far Cry 5's arcade mode, even with the odd additional Easter egg. You can check out the Dam remake level in the video below:
In a statement, Krollywood said Ubisoft was contacted by MGM, the studio behind James Bond. "It's really sad..." they said.
In a statement issued to Kotaku, Ubisoft confirmed it had removed the maps from Far Cry 5 due to copyright claims from a rights holder, but didn't name MGM. "We respect the intellectual property rights of others and expect our users to do the same," Ubisoft said. "This matter is currently with the map's creator and the rights holder and we have nothing further to share at this time."
As Kotaku notes, this action seems heavy-handed, given Krollywood used Far Cry 5's in-built level editor to remake GoldenEye and did not seek to sell their creation.
MGM has form when it comes to issuing James Bond takedowns. Last year, the creator of an ambitious project to remake the entire N64 GoldenEye 007 campaign in Unreal Engine 4 said he'd been "kindly asked by the IP holder (MGM/Danjaq) to cease development".
In February, the cancelled GoldenEye 007 XBLA remaster leaked online. In 2007 Microsoft-owned Rare developed a HD remaster of its N64 classic to be released on XBLA, but copyright disputes saw the project shuttered.
Will Microsoft ever task Rare with getting its GoldenEye remaster off the ground? It seems unlikely. "GoldenEye rights are so challenging, looked at this many times," Xbox boss Phil Spencer tweeted in 2015. "Lot's of different parties to work with, we've always given up."
Meanwhile, Hitman developer IO Interactive has revealed it is making the next James Bond game, codenamed Project 007.
As for Krollywood, in a Reddit post they said they will re-release all the levels as soon as possible, "just with little changes in the names."
