In a recent interview with VGC, Nightdive CEO Stephen Kick revealed more about why the company's Goldeneye 007 pitch wasn't picked up, but his answers have only seemed to have raised more questions in the game's community.
Speaking to VGC's Andy Robinson about its pitch, it stated the studio had set up a "dream team" and had the approval of MGM/Eon, but that Nintendo was unwilling to work with the studio due to its reluctance to partner with third-party developers, and this would ultimately be the end of matters.
"That was a real heartbreak," Kick told VGC in the interview, which was published last Thursday. "Just because we had put in a lot of effort into pitching that. We had a dream team all setup, and we got by the MGM/Eon side of things. That took a year. And then it was: 'Ok, we’re ready to go.' 'Well, did you guys get the rights from Nintendo?' 'Wait a minute, we thought you had that.' And then Nintendo was like, 'Yeah, no third party’s ever going to touch any Nintendo stuff, ever'.
Just to give you some background, the news that Nightdive was once in contention to work on a remaster of the game first came to light back in 2022, following the announcement that Rare and Code Mystics' would be reissuing the iconic N64 shooter across Nintendo Switch and Xbox consoles.
At the time, the Nightdive CEO Stephen Kick revealed on social media that his company was once pitching its own remaster of the FPS classic, stating, "We @NightdiveStudio came *this* close to doing this".
Back then, he didn't elaborate exactly what had led to the cancellation of the project, which led some to assume that MGM/Eon (the movie rights holders) were responsible, having long been rumoured as the reason why the game's leaked Xbox Live Arcade remaster from 2007/2008 never saw an official release.
Graslu00 (a key figure in the GoldenEye 007 community online), stated in response to the latest developments on social media, "I only have more questions" upon hearing Nintendo was the party responsible for turning down Nightdive's remaster.
He correctly highlighted that Rare and Code Mystics (who eventually did reissue the game back in 2022 for Nintendo Switch and Xbox) are both third-party developers, not directly linked to Nintendo, so it doesn't exactly make that much sense that Nightdive's third-party status was the sole reason for the company choosing to turn down the pitch.
We tried to get to the bottom of this mystery, reaching out to Nightdive for further clarification and sending over the following questions:
- How did MGM/Eon respond to Nightdive getting in touch? Were there any specific hoops you had to go through to get the all-clear? Or any indication they weren't exactly keen on pursuing a remaster to begin with?
- Can Nightdive talk about what their pitch entailed? Was it a demo, design docs, or something else entirely?
- And finally, was the Nintendo employee who told them "No third party’s ever going to touch any Nintendo stuff, ever" talking about Switch specifically or third-party platforms?
Sadly, though, all we got was a "No Comment" in response to our inquiries, suggesting that Nightdive is either unwilling or unable to comment more than it already has.
Hopefully, one day, more information will come out about what exactly happened with this pitch. Until then, your guess is as good as ours.