Seems odd no-one here has mentioned this leak from a few days ago.

Basically we are talking about the original Rare developers having almost completed an updated Xbox 360 version of the N64 game Goldeneye back in 2007, ten years after the original release. It got canned at the final hour, when they had something like 90 bugs left to fix. Some pain in the ass higher up at Nintendo who hates Microsoft canned it at the last minute, after all other parties had agreed earlier. That was 14 years ago and now someone has leaked almost that last version.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/02/goldeneye-007s-lost-xbox-360-remaster-has-leaked-as-a-full-game-speedrun/

The play through and visuals look awesome ... checkout the screenshots too. Essentially the original game has been kept as is, with just environment and character visuals updated for widescreen and higher resolutions.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/02/ex-rare-devs-open-up-about-the-canceled-goldeneye-007-remake-for-xbox-360/

Check out the official video for back then.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/08/see-30-minutes-of-rare-heh-goldeneye-007-prototype-on-xbox-360/

P.S. The leaked game can be downloaded as a 231 Mb (700 expanded) zipped file, and can be played on an Xbox 360 (presumably hacked) or the PC with an emulator.

In case some of you haven't realized, this is indeed the full game and playable on your PC with the emulator ... and far better than the N64 emulators.

For that alone it is worth getting this classic.

Check out the videos and screenshots ... the extra level of detail has to be seen to be appreciated.

well.. if you are 'into' hacked / pirated games, you can find this game easily on internet.
I guess no one spoke about it, because.. it's a pirated game.
And before someone starts, yes, this game was never released, but.... there is still copyright on it.

And Yes, it could have done great on xbox 360 ...

Nah, the original developers had long since departed Rare at that point.

Not from what I have read when it comes to working on this version game ... most of the original crew participated. Perhaps you are confusing this with the later Reloaded versions for the Wii and PS3.

And as for the piracy angle mentioned, two of the developers who worked on it were interviewed and they swore they never leaked it, but are happy that all their work is now being appreciated. I guess in a very real sense it is abandonware, in perhaps a truer sense than many.

No, I'm not getting confused with the Activision (or whoever it was) Goldeneye game. I'm talking about the fact that most of the original developers had left Rare by that point. A lot of the key Goldeneye people left after the original Perfect Dark and went to form Free Radical (Timesplitters, Second Sight etc.). Even more people left after the Microsoft purchase. There may have been some people left but definitely not "most" unless the old guys came back freelance or something.

I can only report what I read, and maybe they did do as you suggested, as it would have been the 10 year anniversary for the game as well.

Have you read the articles I linked to ... and they lead to other articles, old and new, most of which I read. And my recollection says all the key developers, especially for the changes that occurred, worked on the 360 version.

I'm not going to scour the articles for references to the original original devs, but from the quick scan of the "90 bugs left" article I just did, the article seems to be using "original devs" to mean the team from 14 years ago, not the one from 24 years ago. I'm not so invested in proving you wrong that I'm going to go digging further but I still don't believe they really had much of the real original team there. Feel free to quote me stuff if you still want to change my mind.

Nintendo really are one of the scummiest most out of touch game corporations around, I mean people talk about EA and such but I don't remember EA shutting down harmless fan projects and mods.

By the way, I am not encouraging anyone to do anything illegal, hence me not providing download links or even indicating where they can be found.

It is totally up to each and everyone who is interested, and it is especially an interesting case, and Nintendo certainly have a lot to answer for.

Personally, I think Nintendo, or at least the executive who cancelled this version of GoldenEye, should suffer huge condemnation for their selfish idiocy. And I have no problem myself grabbing the game, especially as I already own the original on N64 ... paid a pretty hefty price for it back in the day too ... and it was the reason we bought the console.

So my view, is every download is sticking it to the man ... corporate greed etc. They deserve for thousands to download it.

Anyway, I am just spreading the word, and hoped to start a related conversation amongst gamers, many of whom would care about this game. It's not the first or last game to be abandoned.

*cough* Battlefield Revive project *cough*

Well that Mario 64 PC port they tried to shut down is still active and going strong, they figured out how to escape Nintendo's claws, publicly announce you are going to ignore their legal threats and carry on.

Nintendo were the ones that blocked the release of the remaster on 7th gen consoles, so eat a dick Nintendo. Also, it works on a modded 360, which is just amazing.

Good. The Xbox 360 is a turd for the retarded.

Playable with mouse & keyboard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWCWOP2FusU