Still dreaming of the day that GoldenEye 007 is afforded a glorious resurrection on Xbox LIVE Arcade or Virtual Console? Fuggeddabouddit, buddy – it ain’t happening!

The GoldenEye revival was the subject of much discussion and no little excitement last year. However it appears that the whole project was fraught with difficulty from the very outset, and, as Rare has recently confirmed, is now pretty much kaput. In the words of a Rare scribe on the firm’s official website:

“That was some time ago, my friend. Fate was against us that day. Destiny conspired to raise the hurdles even as we attempted to clear them, resulting in unpleasant groinal injury. I suspect we’re long past the stage where an agreement was on the cards, but you never know. Stranger things have happened… somewhere… probably.”

For “unpleasant groinal injury” we guess you can read “tricky licensing negotiations”. Think about it – Rare was a member of the Nintendo family when it made GoldenEye back in 1997, but is now part of the mighty Microsoft empire. Add Activision into the mix, since it’s they who own the rights to the James Bond franchise, and it’s easy to understand how any discussions regarding who gets what might get a bit, y’know, difficult.

Anyway, the upshot of all the above is that GoldenEye is off the cards, and is likely to remain so until the men in suits can sort themselves out. Annoyingly it seems that more or less everyone involved wants to bring the game back too. Damn...