Rare’s Goldeneye is both one of the most popular games and most important games ever; it was the first game that proved shooters could work on a console (in that game’s case, the Nintendo 64) and it’s still beloved to this day. Fans have been clamoring for the classic game to reach other consoles for almost two decades now, but it doesn’t look like it will happen anytime soon according to this tweet from Phil Spencer.
@leflus Goldeneye rights are so challenging, looked at this many times. Lot's of different parties to work with, we've always given up.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) December 8, 2015
Indeed there are many parties involved with this game nowadays including: Microsoft (the current owners of Rare), Nintendo (the original publisher of Goldeneye), Activision (the current owners to the rights for James Bond games) and possibly even Sony Pictures (the current owners of the film rights to James Bond) and all of the actors whose likenesses were featured in the game.
There was reportedly going to be a port of the game made for the Xbox 360 and Wii, but Nintendo apparently canceled the game when they realized the Xbox 360 version would be superior. Now that Nintendo and Microsoft are acting friendly with each other (as indicated by the upcoming release of Minecraft on the Wii U), it appears that one of the other parties involved is causing issues with the port happening. But with the game’s 20th anniversary coming in 2017, perhaps everyone will join together and finally release the game so that everyone can know why Goldeneye is so legendary.
