Goldeneye 007 was released in 1997 and for many players, it was a game-changer. The game managed to combine an espionage plot with fantastic first-person shooting mechanics and as a result, the title is still regarded as a classic twenty-three years after its initial release. Due to the game's reputation as one of the most innovative first-person shooters, many fans have paid homage to the title and even tried to recreate it with contemporary graphics. One of these attempts has now been shut down by franchise owners MGM/Danjaq.

Goldeneye 25 was designed to update the original Goldeneye game with Unreal Engine 4 graphics and many fans were excited to see a visually improved version of the original. While aspects of Goldeneye have aged well, newcomers would likely find the graphics from 1997 jarring, and this fan-based project could have raised the notoriety of the well-known game. Nonetheless, all the videos and materials that explicitly reference Goldeneye are now being removed after legal action was taken.

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One of the developers behind the project, Yannick Zenhäusern, updated fans on the situation through a message and a YouTube video. In the video, they explained that receiving a cease and desist was "always in the back of our heads as a possibility but we tried our best to keep going." There did not appear to be any animosity between the two parties and Zenhäusern outlined the right of the companies involved to protect their product. However, given that the remastered music was completed and screenshots had shown how much better this iteration of Goldeneye would look, some fans will be disappointed that the game has been paused.

Many would have anticipated license holders to put a stop to a product that may profit from their intellectual property but there is still scope for a new game from the developers. The Goldeneye references will be dropped and the team is going to begin a new project called Project Icarus. While a lot of players want a Goldeneye remake and may feel that the licensing issue here indicates possible work from MGM/Danjaq, it is much more likely that this is simply a routine way to protect the respective companies' material.

Goldeneye fans will likely continue to create content but fully-fledged projects will face a response from the parties that own the title. While this will disappoint fans, there are plenty of mods for the original title that they can pick up to breathe new life into the game.

Goldeneye 007 is available for the Nintendo 64.

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