The fan-made GoldenEye remake has been shut down thanks to MGM and the James Bond license holder.
Why haven’t we had a new James Bond video game in years? Maybe it’s because MGM Studios and Danjaq LLC, the James Bond IP holder, don’t want one. We can’t imagine why not, but it would make sense given how they’re actively stamping out developers that were going to remake GoldenEye 64 in the Unreal 4 engine. And they were going to release it for free, too.
It was called GoldenEye 25, a name chosen for the ambitious goal of releasing the game by GoldenEye 64’s 25th anniversary, which would be in August of 2022. They were well on their way to getting the game made, with music, game assets, and many level designs already completed.
But then they got a cease and desist letter from MGM/Danjaq to halt all development no later than August 19th. The dev team has decided to not fight the C&D and will instead fully comply with MGM's demand.
"We're sad to announce that we've been kindly asked by the IP holder (MGM/Danjaq) to cease development of GoldenEye 25,” wrote the dev team on their Twitter account. “This has always been in the back of our heads as a possibility but we've tried our best to keep going. Of course we will comply and want to thank you for your ongoing support."
A follow-up video from Swedish musician Yannick Zenhäusern went into further detail. The plan now is to initiate plan B, which is to create an entirely original game. It will retain much of the original game's development but will remove all references to James Bond and anything that could be argued as infringing on the Bond copyright. This means the musical score--which had already been completed--will not be in the new game, but a new score will be made that pays homage to the sounds of GoldenEye.
The new game will be called Project Janus, which is of course a reference to the evil organization in GoldenEye.
And the good news is that this new game won’t have any copyrighted materials so the developers can even sell it on Steam. It’ll have a lot of that retro ‘90s shooter feel, so expect some nostalgia even if you’re not playing as Bond himself.
Source: Twitter, GamesIndustry.biz