Nintendo simultaniously dicks Wii and 360 owners...

[AlexMax]

...in a stunning display of hubris.


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.

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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.

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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.

Source: NeoGAF (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=247145), who sourced a print gaming mag, so it's no hoax or rumor. There's also a picture of the high def remake floating around the internet.

Congratulations Nintendo. You simultaneously dicked over any chance of Goldeneye getting a decent modern remake and any chance of seeing any of Rare's N64 releaseson the Virtual Console, which is kind of a big deal since they were basically half the reason anyone bought an N64 anyway.

So much for Nintendo being a nice friendly company, and made me kind of glad I sold my Wii.

Also, in before massive amounts of "I never really liked Rare's games anyway" backpedaling.

[Beldaran]

I loved the fucking shit out of Goldeneye back in the days. Nintendo can eat a cock for this move. God.

[Pineconn]

God.

Hehe. :D

Anyway, Goldeneye would have been a nice feature on the VC. Good thing I still have my good ol' N64 and Goldeneye cartridge.

[Dan Furst]

You don't play GE anymore, who are you kidding!

Banjo-Kazooie would have been nice for VC (and Brawl, for that matter).

[The_Amaster]

...wow...

So, wait...you basicly take one of the most popular N64 games, one of the games that pioneered the console FPS genre, one of the most popular games of yore of all time...

..and...and...let company pride get in the way not only of the popularity, but the profits?


Still, comparing their track record to that of Sony and Microsoft, I gotta say Nintendo still comes out a head, albeit by not so much as before.

[AlexMax]

..and...and...let company pride get in the way not only of the popularity, but the profits?

It's just some typical misguided Japanese "honor" bullshit, and this is probably some sort of petty revenge for Rare jumping ship. Considering Nintendo now has a license to print money, they probably don't particularly care either. After all, they're getting free marketing and good will from their fanatical fanboys and they're opening up an entirely new target market who doesn't particularly care about classic gaming.


Still, comparing their track record to that of Sony and Microsoft, I gotta say Nintendo still comes out a head, albeit by not so much as before.

Track record my ass. (http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/june03/dumbestmoments/index23.shtml) Nintendo would fuck you over in a heartbeat if it had the chance, and all the Wii and Web 2.0 goodwill in the world can't fix that.

[jman2050]

And thus the spread of hearsay begins...

[Icey]

Cute. Only the best game ever and we won't get it on VC, or the 360 arcade. That's crap, but not exactly unexpected.

[AlexMax]

Cute. Only the best game ever and we won't get it on VC, or the 360 arcade. That's crap, but not exactly unexpected.

actually that goes for the entire rare back catalog on the virtual console, not just goldeneye

that means none of these:

* Banjo Kazooie
* Banjo Tooie
* Blast Corps
* Conkers Bad Fur Day
* Goldeneye 007
* Jet Force Gemini
* Perfect Dark

this probably doesn't affect rare games that use nintendo owned properties such as diddy kong racing or donkey kong 64 though

[Icey]

Yeah, I also loved Perfect Dark and Jet Force Gemini. The others I never really played. This is pretty bad news.

[Yoshiman]

Nintendo would fuck you over in a heartbeat if it had the chance, and all the Wii and Web 2.0 goodwill in the world can't fix that.
Such is the way of any successful business. :/



Can't say I'm too surprised at this. I never really expected Goldeneye to be remade or show up on Virtual Console/XBL Marketplace since Microsoft owns Rare, but the game was on a Nintendo console.

Even so, it's kind of a shame that a bunch of company fluff got in the way. I would've loved to see an updated Goldeneye. I never did unlock the very last mission. Good thing I still have the N64 game I got at a yard sale for $7. :p

Though I have gained some respect for Reggie Fils-Aime. If the comment about him is true, then maybe there are some corporate bigwigs who still care for their consumers.

[MottZilla]

Alex, Rare didn't jump ship. Nintendo sold Rare. Also, I don't think the japanese every particularly like Rare except maybe early on. I remember hearing the japanese thinking Americans were suckers for good graphics in reference to Rare's Donkey Kong Country series.

Honestly, Nintendo never had a good record with competition. They have always been dicks. The only reason they backed down from their original position during the NES days was cause the courts would have fucked them hard. It's a shame that the retarded japanese ego bullshit will apparently prevent mutual benifit for everyone.

I think 007 would have been a sweet title to see on the 360 arcade. And Wii could certainly have used it either as a remake or as one of many RARE titles in the VC. I'm still wondering what the deal is with Killer Instinct. They need to get that in the arcade. =)

[The_Amaster]

I agree with almost everything said above, except for...

It's a shame that the retarded japanese ego bullshit will apparently prevent mutual benifit for everyone.

Tain't just Nintendo there. Microsoft, Sony, any corporation doesn't want stuff that benefits everyone. They want stuff that benefits their users, and convinces others to join them.

[vegeta1215]

This is news? I heard about this a while back...well, the part about Nintendo not letting Goldeneye be on X-Box Live. Are you all really suprised? I'm not.

It would've been cool though, both on 360 and Wii VC, esp if there is less slow down.

[Icey]

Businesses like the appearance of being user friendly without the work of doing so. See: Microsoft.


I agree with almost everything said above, except for...


Tain't just Nintendo there. Microsoft, Sony, any corporation doesn't want stuff that benefits everyone. They want stuff that benefits their users, and convinces others to join them.

Yep. If you've ever studied game theory and it's application to cartels or oligopolies, this is very true. The sad thing is the payoff to both of cooperation would be much higher. They might not both benefit by the same amount, but they would surely both benefit - common sense tells us that much.

[DarkDragoonX]

Goldeneye is one of the few console FPS games I actually enjoyed, and it would've been great to see it on Xbox Live. Likewise, it would have been pretty awesome to see Rare's N64 games on the VC, as half my damn N64 library was their software.

Well, Nintendo can go fuck themselves... that's just a really lame move.

[AlexMax]

Alex, Rare didn't jump ship. Nintendo sold Rare.

Okay, so maybe not 'petty revenge' or anything, but the point still stands that they have some serious 'honor' issues going on.


Also, I don't think the japanese every particularly like Rare except maybe early on. I remember hearing the japanese thinking Americans were suckers for good graphics in reference to Rare's Donkey Kong Country series.

Spot on. Donkey Kong Country was a supremely mediocre series of platformers that just so happened to have decent prerendered graphics for its time.

[MottZilla]

Haha. You're right the game isn't ground breaking, but the point was Nintendo was basically bashing the game when they themselves couldn't achieve that at the time. And it's silly they bash it when it sold like crazy. It's just more evidence that Nintendo is very japanese.

It's still pretty odd to me that Nintendo was involved in 007 anyway. Activision shouldn't act like Nintendo's bitch. That's one reason this whole story sounds fishy to me.

[MasterSwordUltima]

* Conkers Bad Fur Day


There is an awesome remake of Conker's Bad Fur Day for the XBox. No need to release it. Besides, not like it would have made it to the VC anyway, what with its language and choice of names and all.

[Anthus]

There is an awesome remake of Conker's Bad Fur Day for the XBox. No need to release it. Besides, not like it would have made it to the VC anyway, what with its language and choice of names and all.

Hmm. Yeah, wasn't Perfect Dark also ported to the 360? I don't see why this game is suddenly a big deal as far as porting/ re-releasing :/

[MottZilla]

No it wasn't. Perfect Dark "Zero" the sequel was developed by RARE for Xbox and then Xbox 360 which is was finally released for. The original Perfect Dark only appeared on the N64. However it is possible they could remake it. Not sure why they would want to though.

[Mitsukara]

At the end of the day, all corporations = suck, even if they have cool things to their names, or warm, fuzzy associations. The older I get the more consistently true that seems to be.

I mean, capitalism is all about getting ahead by whatever means necessary, king of the mountain, screw everybody else and save your own ass. By default, corporations have to be run in assholish ways.

As long as I can collect and hold onto the stuff I care about in a decent form, things are okay. Continuous needs like food and cleaning, though, and clothes wearing out, now that's a pain in the ass that never goes away.

[Revfan9]

Well at least I have Project64 and my good-ole PC Game controller to fall back on :shrug:

[Radium]

I blame Rare and Microsoft for this bs. Sounds to me like Microsoft wanted a piece. It seems to me that the one who's making the decision to not release it is Rare, not Nintendo.

[Icey]

I mean, capitalism is all about getting ahead by whatever means necessary, king of the mountain, screw everybody else and save your own ass. By default, corporations have to be run in assholish ways.


Not exactly. Maybe some businesses take that road to profit but most realize creating a bad rep/legal liability is not the best route. A business has profit as its primary objective; absolutely. However, there's no profit if they don't provide a product or service that people want. Personally, I don't think creating things people want is a bad thing.

[MottZilla]

I blame Rare and Microsoft for this bs. Sounds to me like Microsoft wanted a piece. It seems to me that the one who's making the decision to not release it is Rare, not Nintendo.

What do you mean? RARE is the reason there aren't RARE games on the Virtual Console. As they are owned by M$. However it is possible what they say, that Nintendo would be unhappy with activision I think they said, if they went ahead with the project. Activision I'm guessing hold the 007 license right now. So to put out Goldeneye, you need them. But Activision, certainly doesn't want to do anything to piss off Nintendo. Seems to make sense to me. It's just sad that the game won't come out as it would have had great potential.

[KingArthur]

Well.. its a good thing Conker already got a remake then.. and Diddy Kong Racing...

What i want to see is a new Battle Toads though.

[MottZilla]

Gee, you think I wanna see BattleToads? ;) I also want to see Killer Instinct 3. But those would be tall orders to do them justice.

[Darth Marsden]

I wanna see a proper, full-on sequel to Conker's Bad Fur Day. And then simmer at how I can't play it 'cause it's on the 360.