James Bond 007 Video Game Views

General Goods

The popularity of the James Bond video game series didn't really take off, however, until 1997's GoldenEye 007 by Rare for the Nintendo 64. GoldenEye 007 was a first-person shooter that expanded on the film and added a multiplayer component to the game. The game received very positive reviews[1] and sold over eight million copies.[2] Subsequently, virtually every Bond video game has attempted to copy GoldenEye 007's accomplishment and features with varying degrees of success.

The next Bond game, based on the film Tomorrow Never Dies, was not developed by Rare, and featured a third-person viewpoint in contrast to GoldenEye 007's first-person perspective. When the game met muted success, the next title, The World Is Not Enough, returned to first-person. However, publisher Electronic Arts, which owned the rights to publish video games based on the Bond franchise, chose different developers for different systems - Eurocom for the Nintendo 64 and Black Ops for the PlayStation, with drastically different results. Eurocom's N64 title was released to good reviews, while Black Ops' PlayStation version met with less success. Neither game garnered the financial or critical success of GoldenEye 007, and EA finally decided to detach the games from the films.

In 2002, James Bond 007: Nightfire was released. It was developed by Eurocom for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Xbox video game consoles. Gearbox Software developed the game for Windows, which Aspyr later re-released for the Mac. The computer versions are substantially different from the console versions, featuring different missions, a modified story line, and online play. It was published by Electronic Arts in 2002. In 2003 EA released Nightfire for the Game Boy Advance this time developed by JV Games.

Beginning in 1999, Electronic Arts held the exclusive rights to develop games based on the official James Bond films. In 2003, MGM Interactive extended their deal with EA until 2010. However, this deal ended in September 2007 due to EA's commitment to move away from movie franchise games and focus more on internal IPs. Additionally, at least one source claims that EA's inability to develop and have a game ready to tie-into Casino Royale (2006), led to the two companies terminating their deal, as MGM stood to lose millions in licensing fees due to EA's failure.[3]