Retro_Link Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 http://www.cubed3.com/news/5032 In what will come as a very large surprise to many, it has been revealed that after the James Bond-related travesties that Electronic Arts has brought to the world of gaming, the licence for the British spy has been yanked away from the largest Third Party in the world. MGM Interactive and EON Productions have gone on record confirming that Activision has been granted the rights up until the year 2014 (the same year EA has just extended its FIFA rights to, by the way). This follows disastrous game after disastrous game from Electronic Arts, with From Russia With Love being the latest dire product, gradually tarnishing the good name of James Bond. To date, the James Bond movies have grossed more than $3.6 billion since Dr No. was released in 1962. And since moving to videogames, the property has raked in a ridiculously large 30 million units's worth of sales. Mike Griffith, President & CEO of Activision said: "James Bond is the ultimate action movie franchise, and we look forward to establishing a long-term relationship with MGM and EON. The James Bond franchise creates tremendous global expansion opportunities for Activision as it is one of the few video game licences that appeals equally to domestic and international consumers." This now means that Activision has the rights to make Bond games across all current and next-generation formats, as well as PC and handheld platforms. In addition, just as EA did From Russia With Love, the company can use any of the Bond films, past or present, as well as having the right to create non-movie based James Bond titles! With Casino Royale, the 21st Bond title, launching in across Europe and US on 17th November, 2006, what is the plan for a game tie-in? There has been talk of next-generation systems only, current ones only and a mixture of the two. But with EA out of the loop, what will be the result? The EA games have been terrible, so this can only be good news! Let's see what Activision can do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LazyBoy Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 Good news, very good news. I might be able to bring myself to play Bond games again now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Peeps Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 Hopefully this means we'll get some decent Bond games! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eliytres Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 Hopefully this means we'll get some decent Bond games! Make it double. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashley Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 Activision have done good things with Spider-Man, and mixed things with X-Men (t'is them isn't it?) I wish them the best of luck, hopefully they'll do something good. I read "James Bond-related travesties that Electronic Arts" as James Bond-related tranvestites". Its late... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djamb3 Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 Now this is a good new.Maybe we can see a truly goldeneye sequel in wii :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dutt Posted May 3, 2006 Share Posted May 3, 2006 Good lord. Let's just hope they can pull off some Rare-esque Bond masterpiece. I would kill for a true Goldeneye-styled Bond game. Ya know, a decent one. :awesome: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibur Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 Thank god, Activision might be able to pull out some half decient Bond titles. EA was just killing the name more and more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 Yeah, good change over. If Activision gets someone like ID software working on a Bond game, there should be no problems at all. EA was just taking the piss out of the franchise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shyguy Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 this is good news indeed, activision are a good company and bring alot of AAA titles to consoles, i just hope to god that they allow Goldeneye for download, both them nad nintendo will profit, unless Rare own that game still Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 Can they just make a FPS like Goldeneye with alot of action in it...PLEASE. EA really hasn't come up with the goods where Bond is concerned, their best effort was World Is Not Enough, I am right in saying they made that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiemetriX Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 World Is Not Enough was EA. And to be honest.. I loved that game. I hope we se it on VC atleast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patch Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 I agree, TWINE is the best non-Rare Bond game. It was published by EA but developed by Eurocom. As far as I know, all the others have been developed by EA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
system_error Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 Yeah, good change over. If Activision gets someone like ID software working on a Bond game, there should be no problems at all. EA was just taking the piss out of the franchise. Are you serious? All iD Software can do is make pretty graphics and not even that is as good as many others do. If you want James Bond to be a 0815 no brainer then iD is right. EA did a pretty good job with Everything or Nothing - their problem is that a different studio developed the other versions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kellett03 Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 lol @ EA wtf too short when did that crappy rule come in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiemetriX Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 lol @ EA wtf too short when did that crappy rule come in That "crappy" rule has been here since the start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViPeR Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 Maybe now there's some hope of getting Goldeneye for download. C'mon Activision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 Activision have some good FPS developers who they could farm the chise out to such as Infinity Ward (Call of Duty), ID Software (Doom) and Raven (Star Trek: Elite Force) - Personally I wouldn't hand it over to ID, they are excellent developers but their FPS games are pretty shallow experiences, just out and out blasters and i'd rather not see bond games like that. Raven have proven that they can handle film licenses well before with Star Trek: Elite Force and Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2 and as a consequence they'd probably be my choice although Infinity Ward know how to make a game with a great atmosphere. Either way they can't be any worse than EA's efforts and hopefully we'll see a few good bond games pop up on Wii. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nintenchris Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 Lets be hounest EA should have lost it ages ago .. the only Bond game that i liked was TWINE on the N64 which i belive was there first Bond game. Oh and EON was above average but nothing brilliant. EA have had there day... and they blew it :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
21st century cowboy Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 I thought EA were making a Casino Royal game. Will they still be bringing this out or will Activision be making one, Although it is a bit late for them to start now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nintendork Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 EA can suck Activision's balls. Good news. I did enjoy the Bond game that EA made 'Night Fire' I think it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowV7 Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 Hope we will get a decent Bond game like GE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellfire Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 This was unexpected. EA must be pissed off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pedrocasilva Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 This was unexpected. EA must be pissed offI second that... But about bond licence I don't think activision will do a much better job... it's more like a matter of... people were bitching about years about it and the sales must have dropped, so they changed the developer, simple as that. And "From Russia With Love" was not bad... just awfully generic, exactly what any of us could expect... EA doesn't do the worse games on the world, just the more generic ones. Also I believe EA started developing the "Casino Royal" film, maybe considering it was supposed to be next generation... they weren't liking the results or something. Just like the first generation X360 games they released for Xbox 360, madden in particular, not really next gen, and that's always a problem when doing multiplatform games and trying to keep costs down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCK Posted May 4, 2006 Share Posted May 4, 2006 EA is definetely the lesser of two evils - they made a good game with Everything or Nothing (really, it's a good game). I think Activision is as terrible in milking out franchises, but I doubt they'll want to throw as much money at it as EA did. I think this actually might be a planned move by EA. I never had the idea that the Bond games sold that great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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