I think it’s pretty safe to say that if and/or when Goldeneye 007 is ever re-released, on whatever platform, it’s going to sell like hotcakes. Funny thing is, despite the fact that a magazine managed to secure a hands-on play session with the game, Microsoft refused to even admit the game existed. Uh, what? Of course, if you didn’t have the ability to purchase Xbox World 360, the internet is your best friend, as all of the images and information have been posted for nitpicking .
Xbox World 360′s "world exclusive" cover story says that Goldeneye 007 was absolutely a real work-in-progress for Xbox Live Arcade, and at its cancelation, only the pictured Dam level was 100% done. Interestingly enough, the fuel for all of debate around this subject has been the ongoing denials, with Microsoft even stating that they "were never contacted" for comment on this article, to which they were again countered . So, it would seem as though unless Xbox World 360 is risking their very publication by inventing the following piece, Microsoft is flat out covering this up. Hmm.
Hit the jump for the full scoop.
Xbox World 360 surely sold epic tons of their new issue, as their piece garners even more attention to this game’s fate than we originally had. According to the magazine:
This is no hoax. This is no fan-made ROM hack, PC Source mod or Photoshop fake. This is no joke, and contrary to the date on the cover, this is no April Fool either. This is the Nintendo 64′s GoldenEye running on the Xbox 360, made
by Rare, published by 007 license holders Activision and released over
Live Arcade by Microsoft – and it’s the best game you’ll never play.GoldenEye was set for release in the middle of this year, until it was cancelled late in 2007, apparently at the behest of Nintendo. As Oddjaw tells it, Nintendo America boss Reggie Fils-Aime was supposedly completely behind the idea, knowing well what the project would mean to gamers, especially when the deal was sweetened by Rare’s offer to port the game to Wii, while making the rest of their back catalogue available on the Virtual Console.
Hmm, so I guess it was actually a real project then, huh? Nintendo and Microsoft were even apparently working together on making it happen. The game was set to feature a blazing fast 60FPS frame rate, four-player split screen multiplayer, as well as four-player multiplayer over Xbox Live- with ALL of the original game options intact. On the topic of why exactly the game was canceled, funnel your hate towards Nintendo, as it appears it’s their fault.
The agreement between the parties allowed the game to be developed almost to completion before Nintendo’s
Japanese boss Satoru Iwata decided that under absolutely no
circumstances would Nintendo allow the game to see release on another
platform. While Ninty apparently have neither rights to the code nor any legal means to block the release, it’s rumoured that the threat to Activision’s relationship with Nintendo was enough for them to disband the project.
As for the fact that Xbox World 360 never got in touch with Microsoft, the editors claim that the company issued them the following statement:
We don’t comment on rumor and speculation. While the games community’s response to this rumor is extremely flattering, we don’t have anything to announce at this time.
That’s quite a bit more than "nothing", if you ask me. So again the question is, what really is going on here?
