Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Interactive and EON Productions Ltd. have awarded Activision the lucrative rights to develop and publish games based on the James Bond license for 007 years - that's up until 2014 for all you maths numpties. This deal, of course, will stand as long as the world hasn’t been nuked to smithereens by then, by some dastardly former evil Commie villain with a cat.
The rights were owned by Electronic Arts, but it would seem that its last damp squib of a Bond game, From Russia With Love, based on the 1963 movie starring Sean Connery, has put paid to that deal.
SPOnG also wonders if it could perhaps also be the case that Activision is a little more easily persuaded to make James Bond games PS3-exclusives than EA are? Sony does after all, own a significant stake in MGM.
Ian Fleming’s Bond is a classic license to print money, having grossed more than $3.6 billion theatrically worldwide since the release of Dr. No in 1962. Approximately 30 million units of video games based on the world of James Bond have been sold to date.
Whatever the reasoning and the politics behind the deal, Warren Jenson, chief financial officer of Electronic Arts, somewhat hilariously told Reuters that it had agreed to end the licensing deal because it no longer fit its corporate strategy. EA don’t really like lucrative movie licenses after all, it would seem. Yeah. Like, really! Chins were stroked across the SPOnG office upon hearing this one.
So, out goes super-smarm Pierce Brosnan and resting-on-its-laurels EA; in comes rugged Daniel Craig and keen-to-impress Activision. Let’s hope that they both do a better job at reviving this much-loved character and license. More so than anything in Ian Fleming’s wonderful world of the uber-English, gentleman spy, SPOnG wishes for a return to the gaming glory that was Goldeneye on the N64. We still play it from time to time, to remind ourselves just how good it was.
It is, of course, great news for Activision. Mike Griffith, head of Activision's publishing arm, said, "The James Bond franchise creates tremendous global expansion opportunities for Activision as it is one of the few video game licenses that appeals equally to domestic and international consumers."
The next Bond movie is a remake of 1967's Casino Royale due out in November. Expect an announcement on the Casino Royale game from Activision at some point soon. SPOnG will be the first to tell you about it.
Interestingly the license will grant Activision the right to develop and publish games based on all of the James Bond movies, plus non-movie based games. We will endeavour to find out more about what these non-movie based games might be.
The rights were owned by Electronic Arts, but it would seem that its last damp squib of a Bond game, From Russia With Love, based on the 1963 movie starring Sean Connery, has put paid to that deal.
SPOnG also wonders if it could perhaps also be the case that Activision is a little more easily persuaded to make James Bond games PS3-exclusives than EA are? Sony does after all, own a significant stake in MGM.
Ian Fleming’s Bond is a classic license to print money, having grossed more than $3.6 billion theatrically worldwide since the release of Dr. No in 1962. Approximately 30 million units of video games based on the world of James Bond have been sold to date.
Whatever the reasoning and the politics behind the deal, Warren Jenson, chief financial officer of Electronic Arts, somewhat hilariously told Reuters that it had agreed to end the licensing deal because it no longer fit its corporate strategy. EA don’t really like lucrative movie licenses after all, it would seem. Yeah. Like, really! Chins were stroked across the SPOnG office upon hearing this one.
So, out goes super-smarm Pierce Brosnan and resting-on-its-laurels EA; in comes rugged Daniel Craig and keen-to-impress Activision. Let’s hope that they both do a better job at reviving this much-loved character and license. More so than anything in Ian Fleming’s wonderful world of the uber-English, gentleman spy, SPOnG wishes for a return to the gaming glory that was Goldeneye on the N64. We still play it from time to time, to remind ourselves just how good it was.
It is, of course, great news for Activision. Mike Griffith, head of Activision's publishing arm, said, "The James Bond franchise creates tremendous global expansion opportunities for Activision as it is one of the few video game licenses that appeals equally to domestic and international consumers."
The next Bond movie is a remake of 1967's Casino Royale due out in November. Expect an announcement on the Casino Royale game from Activision at some point soon. SPOnG will be the first to tell you about it.
Interestingly the license will grant Activision the right to develop and publish games based on all of the James Bond movies, plus non-movie based games. We will endeavour to find out more about what these non-movie based games might be.
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Comments
RP 4 May 2006 14:00
1/1
"Interestingly the license will grant Activision the right to develop and publish games based on all of the James Bond movies, plus non-movie based games."
What's so interesting about that? EA had exactly the same freedom, and did make non-movie based games because of it.
Does anyone actually know what's going on with the Casino Royale game? I've only seen a few fleeting references to it over the past few months, but this was obviously long before the license change was announced. It'd be interesting to know what exactly the deal is here.
i.e. did EA have a CR game underway, but has had to knock it on the head due to loosing the license? Or have the two publishers known of the license change for much longer, thus no proper information about the game was revealed as it would leak the license change info ahead of time?
What's so interesting about that? EA had exactly the same freedom, and did make non-movie based games because of it.
Does anyone actually know what's going on with the Casino Royale game? I've only seen a few fleeting references to it over the past few months, but this was obviously long before the license change was announced. It'd be interesting to know what exactly the deal is here.
i.e. did EA have a CR game underway, but has had to knock it on the head due to loosing the license? Or have the two publishers known of the license change for much longer, thus no proper information about the game was revealed as it would leak the license change info ahead of time?
