One of the first gaming news stories to break in 2022 was the surprise appearance of GoldenEye 007 on Xbox Live servers, revealing a full achievement list for the 1997 Nintendo 64 game that appeared to hint towards a new remaster coming to Xbox consoles this year. Now new comments from VentureBeat reporter Jeff Grubb have implied that GoldenEye 007's upcoming remaster could be arriving in the next few weeks.
GoldenEye 007 was first released on Nintendo 64 in August 1997 and was developed by English studio Rare. GoldenEye 007 is a first-person shooter based on the 1995 film of the same name starring Pierce Brosnan as the iconic spy. The game is remembered for revolutionizing first-person shooters on consoles, being one of the most successful examples of the genre on console hardware at the time. The game has also been remembered fondly for its 4-player multiplayer mode. In 2000, Rare released a spiritual successor called Perfect Dark, which is currently to receive a reboot for Xbox Series X/S consoles from The Initiative.
In early 2021, a build of an Xbox 360 remaster of GoldenEye 007 was discovered on a backend server only accessible through Xbox 360 development kits. This build, which later leaked online after its discovery, featured a fully remastered version of the N64 original game that was reportedly only a few weeks away from completion before development was canceled due to disagreements between Microsoft, film studio MGM, video game publisher Activision, and original GoldenEye 007 publisher Nintendo.
While the cancellation of this remaster implied that such a remaster of GoldenEye 007 was off the table for good, the leaking of the Xbox Live achievements at the beginning of the year sparked new hope that a remaster could be on the horizon for the classic first-person shooter. After teasing that the project was on the way, VentureBeat reporter Jeff Grubb has stated that he believes that the remaster will be revealed "in the next few weeks."
Speaking on his Giant Bomb Premium exclusive show GrubbSnax, Grubb claimed that he believes Microsoft will be the one to announce the remaster, and that the game itself will likely arrive shortly after. This change in direction from James Bond rights owner EON likely comes after the company's change in approach to the James Bond video game franchise after announcing a new entry in the franchise to be developed by Hitman developer IO Interactive. This is after Activision Blizzard lost its ownership of the rights in 2013 after the release of 007 Legends. Despite all the issues getting the project off the ground, it appears that the almost 25-year wait for a re-release of GoldenEye 007 is almost over.
