One last Martini to GoldenEye

During this summer's Xbox Holiday Showcase in New York, product manager Michael Johnson got camera shy when MundoRare asked him about GoldenEye XBLA. However, other people around the same party were more eager to share their thoughts. "Let me tell you what happened," said a Microsoft representative who chose to remain unidentified. What he was about to describe was pretty much the same story we all know. Rare started working on GoldenEye XBLA before anybody knew if it was legally possible to release the game; they completed it; Activision, the current holders of the James Bond licence, greenlighted it; and then Nintendo, who share the rights of the original game with Microsoft, refused to give their approval for a joint launch on Wii and Xbox 360. "But the game is finished and it could be released if the situation changes in the future," MundoRare's source added. In other words, Microsoft is still willing to release GoldenEye even if it takes a decade for Nintendo to eat up their ego.

This is a version of the story that even the third party involved backs up. "It's not up to us, we want to see that game out there," another source from Activision told MundoRare, "you've seen it, it looks amazing and we would love to play it. It was Nintendo's fault." In fact, the people at Activision should be the first in line fighting for GoldenEye. "You know, they have nothing to lose. It's only good for them to get it released," this Microsoft contact said, "they would make a lot of money they are not making the way things are right now."