Planets aligned a few weeks ago – with Nintendo announcing the N64 classic GoldenEye 007 would be getting a re-release on modern platforms. It’s kind of a miracle, considering how long the game has been stuck in licensing hell.
Rare’s boss Craig Duncan has now shed some light on the situation behind the scenes during a GI Live panel earlier this week. The team actually tried to add the game to Rare Replay in 2015 for the company’s 30th anniversary but licensing issues got in the way. In the end, Rare simply persisted and was able to make it happen:
Craig Duncan: “To be honest, it took us longer than I wanted it to. We tried to get it lined up for when we did Rare Replay back in 2015, which I guess was Rare’s 30th anniversary.
“As you can imagine, things involving licences and published games just have complexity… there were lots of conversations, lots of conversations with our friends at Nintendo, the folks at MGM, the folks at Xbox, and we just kept talking until we made it happen. We made it happen, so I’m proud of that.”
The Switch wasn’t even out in 2015, so perhaps this worked out better for Nintendo. It’s now “coming soon” to the NSO Expansion Pack service, and when it does arrive, players can look forward to reliving the game’s solo and split-screen multiplayer modes. There’s even “online play” for the Switch version of the game.
An Xbox version is being released as well – featuring achievements, a native 16:9 resolution at up to 4K Ultra HD, and a smoother framerate (via Pure Xbox). It’ll be available on Game Pass, too.
Are you excited about the return of GoldenEye 007? Fire off a comment below.