A rumor's been floating around that Rare was fixing up
GoldenEye 007 for Xbox Live Arcade, complete with online multiplayer and improved graphics.
Joystiq has been following the rumor diligently, and they have the latest development. Fans who were crying tears of joy (like me) are now weeping bitterly (also like me), because supposedly Nintendo and Microsoft couldn't settle the legal matters and the project has been canned. What makes it all the more painful is a supposed leaked comparison video of the original game and the new and improved version. None of this info is official, and it might still be just a rumor, but if an Xbox Live Arcade port of GoldenEye really was in the works, and it was killed by a financial disagreement, then that's a damn shame.
The worst part is that there's a perfectly equitable solution. Rare could let Nintendo port the original game to the Virtual Console, with no improvements or online features. Nintendo has practically made it a policy to port VC games as-is with no new content, so a simple VC emulation seems highly feasible. Meanwhile, the souped-up, Live-enabled version could be released exclusively on Xbox Marketplace. Everybody wins--Wii and 360 owners both get a great game that has been dead for too long, and Microsoft and Nintendo both make a killing.
I don't pretend to be an expert on copyrights and intellectual properties, but I imagine that both companies could work out such an agreement. Sega did almost exactly the same thing with a few of the old Sonic games. Please, Nintendo and Microsoft, if you're listening, do the profitable thing.
