Just a few days ago, the existence of a canceled GoldenEye 007 remaster for the Xbox 360 resurfaced onto the internet. While some details of this project's existence had already been known, a fully playable build was just discovered, revealing a plethora of information about the canceled project. Thanks to some former developers, even more information has surfaced, giving more context to the project's existence and eventual cancellation.
Ross Bury and Mark Edmonds, former developers on the unfinished project, came forward with new details regarding this situation. According to them, the GoldenEye 007 remaster was nearly complete when Nintendo stepped in and shut down the project entirely. The team had less than 100 bugs to fix by the point that the project was canceled, meaning the project was extremely close to fruition.
Beyond this, Bury and Edmonds revealed many other details regarding this title's creation. Development began in late 2006/early 2007, slightly before all parties involved gave their final approval. At some point in development, the team had been given the idea that the project was approved by all involved parties, which later turned out to be false. While several Nintendo employees had approved of the project, a certain unnamed executive had not seen it until it was too late. Upon that executive's discovery of the remaster, they asked for it to be shut down, with just a few weeks of development to spare.
GoldenEye 007 was originally developed by Rareware and published by Nintendo back in 1997, tying into the 1995 Bond film GoldenEye. Fans still hold the title in high regard to this day, considering it one of the best Nintendo 64 games and even one of the best shooters of all time. The remaster would have retained the spirit of the original, but with updated character models, a smoother framerate, and several other quality of life changes.
It is quite a shame that Nintendo shut down a nearly-completed project like this, leaving the hard work of several developers lost to the ages. An Xbox 360 remaster of the title could have gone a long way in preserving this beloved shooter for future generations; the Xbox Live Arcade released of other Rare titles Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie breathed new life into these games, so the same treatment for GoldenEye would have been welcome.
This isn't the first case of a GoldenEye project being shut-down, as a recent GoldenEye fan remake was shut down by MGM/Danjaq. For now, this iconic release can only be played on Nintendo 64.
GoldenEye 007 is available for the Nintendo 64.
Source: IGN