Confirmation of the next Bond game under development by Electronic Arts will surprise most fans...

The Next Bond Game Goes Back In Time
12th February 2004

Electronic Arts may be about the launch the latest Bond game "Everything or Nothing" around the world, but development is already underway on the next 007 digital adventure.

In a move that will surprise most gamers, EA are traveling back to 1995 for material to create the next Bond game due out in 2005.

"We announced an agreement last year saying that we were going to exploit past, present and future Bond properties across a range of gaming platforms," explained an EA spokesperson to Eurogamer, "which includes the potential for taking historical Bond content and putting it into a new scenario."

MI6 received confirmation today that the next game will be based around Pierce Brosnan's debut outing as 007 in 1995.

 


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Above: The original "GoldenEye 64" game released in 1997 by RareWare.
 

"GoldenEye" will be the inspiration for the next title developed by the publisher whose licence to thrill lasts until 2010, but the new game will not be a remake of the 1997 N64 version. Gamers - who are not necessarily Bond fans - still remember "GoldenEye" fondly.

The game that launched the Nintendo 64 platform into dizzy heights on August 25th 1997 used the "GoldenEye" movie as a basis too, although it was developed by UK studio Rare - before EA took over the 007 licence. "GoldenEye 64" was hailed by many as "the best game ever made", it brought both Bond to game fans, games to Bond fans, and has become ingrained in a generation.

Scot Bayless, Executive Producer of the latest game "Everything or Nothing", told MI6 about the long shadow the game casts in an exclusive interview last year, "GoldenEye was a wonderful game that caught the imagination of both gamers and Bond fans. It will always be part of the information cloud around any 007 game".

Having sold eight million copies and brought Bond to approximately 75% of American kids during the first four years on release, the move by EA to revisit the title may be an opportunity the lay Rare's `best Bond game ever` motif to rest once and for all.

Currently the game is in a purely development phase at EA's Redwood Shores and Los Angeles studios. EA confirmed that the game is being developed in-house and no third party companies, including Free Radical who still employ the core "GoldenEye 64" team, are working on the project.

No marketing or PR team has yet been assigned to the project, and the games industry will have to wait until April 2004 before the plans are publicly unveiled.

 

The first sighting of the game is expected at the E3 trade show in Los Angeles in May 2004.

The current Bond game "Everything or Nothing" ships in the USA on February 17th 2004.