For many first-person shooter fans, GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64 remains an important piece of history not only because it's a highly acclaimed and best selling game, but that it proved that the FPS genre could be a viable product on consoles. Many recent attempts to replicate that success have come up short for companies like EA and Activision, while numerous efforts to revive the original GoldenEye over the years have ended up falling into a tangled mess of licenses, rights, and lawyers. However, with the original game now 20 years old, the legal process may have become a bit less complicated.

Cranster, a user on the Resetera forums, discovered that Nintendo originally filed a copyright claim for GoldenEye 007 prior to its original launch date of August 25, 1997. However, upon finding the claim on the US government's IP Rights database, the effective start date displayed is December 10, 1997. Typical copyrights that allow companies to sell products worldwide have a lifespan of 20 years, and according to this copyright claim, it is now expired.

Considering the usually long legal battle that ensues with this franchise, it would appear that one of the many hurdles to getting a new game greenlit has been removed. Previously, many different companies would have had to work together as the rights to James Bond belong to MGM, Nintendo published the original GoldenEye game as well as held the aforementioned copyright claim, Rare has since become a Microsoft first-party studio, and Activision currently holds the James Bond game license. Another legal sticking point is that Activision's current license does not grant it retroactive ownership of the title GoldenEye or of the actual character of Agent 007, which allows fan projects like GoldenEye: Source to continue to exist and receive updates.

While it'll be interesting to see if anything can come about now that Nintendo's longstanding copyright claim has expired, it's worth noting that an attempt to remaster the original GoldenEye 007 was attempted 10 years ago. What's significant about this effort is that Nintendo, Microsoft, and Activision all came together to try and make the project happen, something that is fairly uncommon for traditional publishing rivals. Even though the project ultimately fell apart to the logistical nightmare of licenses and legal teams, leaked footage made it out to the public and teased fans at what could have been.

GoldenEye 007 is available for the Nintendo 64.

Source: Resetera, Intellectual Property Rights