EA to no Longer Publish James Bond Games

[Caped Crusader]

It seems that Activision has acquired the James Bond license: http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=195153 .
I guess after the last two Bond games (Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, and From Russia With Love) lackluster performances, EA decided not to hold onto the rights until 2010 as they originally had planned. I guess it’s no major loss really, seeing that out of the Bond games I’ve played this generation, Everything or Nothing is the only one that impressed me. I just hope Activision is a little more creative and doesn’t resort to cheap cash-ins like EA did with the aforementioned Rogue Agent.

[Simpler Simon]

James Bond "Tony Hawk-style" keeps popping into my head. Shouldn't really make a difference unless Activision can't afford to get the stars into the recording booth.

EA's run with the license varies on how far back you look. Everything or Nothing rocked, as did World is Not Enough for N64 (done by eurocom). From Russia with Love was fun (but easy), and everything else was average (Nightfire, Agent Under Fire) to horrible (Rogue Agent, 007 Racing, Tomorrow Never Dies).

I heard a Casino Royale tie-in game was being planned by EA. Wonder if that got scrapped...

[Caped Crusader]

EA's run with the license varies on how far back you look. Everything or Nothing rocked, as did World is Not Enough for N64 (done by eurocom). From Russia with Love was fun (but easy), and everything else was average (Nightfire, Agent Under Fire) to horrible (Rogue Agent, 007 Racing, Tomorrow Never Dies).

I heard a Casino Royale tie-in game was being planned by EA. Wonder if that got scrapped...


I also liked The World is Not Enough, but since I only talked about this gen in my original post, I didn't mention it.

I still have yet to play from Russia With Love. After seeing some of the reviews, though, I was disappointed to see that it seemed to be a step down from EoN.

As for Casino Royale, I wouldn't be surprised if Activision took over.

[Andrew T. Hingson]

Activision has proven quite capable of making good use of popular franchises. I trust them completely.

EA's games were getting dull IMO. Gosh I wish Rare could still make Bond games.

[Nin-Nin69]

EA's games were getting dull IMO. Gosh I wish Rare could still make Bond games.
Here's the catch with that. The better 1/2 of Rare's Bond team left to make Timesplitters for Free Radical Design at Eidos. Which explains why Perfect Dark Zero was crap. After the first 2 Timesplitters were made, EA bought Free Radical Design and they got the better 1/2 of the original Goldeneye team. Yet they never used them for any of the Bond games. :p

[Conan-san]

Casue, you know, EA lack the mental capasity to make anything of worthy note.

[Simpler Simon]

I still have yet to play from Russia With Love. After seeing some of the reviews, though, I was disappointed to see that it seemed to be a step down from EoN.

I was really caught in the hype for that one when I heard they got Sir Sean back. There's not as much gameplay variety because EA had to (somewhat) stick to the movie script, and for whatever reason its a much easier game. But in terms of movie-to-game translation, its fairly solid.

Did EA voluntairly give up the license or did EON/MGM force them to? I wouldn't think EA would let something like 007 go so easily.

[Noukon]

A couple of my friends who worked on EA's Bond games are reeeally happy about this. I guess EA's design process for them was really convoluted and terrible (which explains why the games are mostly mediocre or outright bad).

[rggkjg1]

good. the last great bond game ea made was nightfire. hopefully activision will make their bond first person, THEY WAY HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE IN VIDEO GAME FORM!

[BigLouMan20]

Nightfire was good but Everything or Nothing owned.

[Lazyboi13]

THANK GOD FOR THAT

seroslly, their games are awful

[Stu]

I've read they're dropping most of thier lisenced titles. We might actually get a good Batman game when the seuqel hits now, instead of the scripted one we got.

[EinBebop]

The license probably wasn't what it was originally valued at anyway. Last Bond movie weren't a huge hit, the new Bond fellow isn't exciting anyone. Goldeneye was a shining star among first-person shooters, but the genre's come a long way and it's that much harder to create an impressive title, and Bond as a video game franchise has suffered hugely from fans being disappointed several times over.

[MattThomasM2B]

Tomorrow Never Dies - Total crap.
Agent Under Fire - Barely passable. Barely.
Nightfire - Average.
Everything or Nothing -Awesome.
Goldeneye: RA - Total crap +10.

Didn't get to play From Russia With Love yet, but it can't be too bad if it was built off EoN.

Really, I wouldn't take this news of Activision getting the license as a guarantee of quality. Activision might as well be named EA Jr. now.

[Weatherman]

I was really caught in the hype for that one when I heard they got Sir Sean back. There's not as much gameplay variety because EA had to (somewhat) stick to the movie script, and for whatever reason its a much easier game. But in terms of movie-to-game translation, its fairly solid.

Did EA voluntairly give up the license or did EON/MGM force them to? I wouldn't think EA would let something like 007 go so easily.

I get the feeling Activision made them an offer they couldn't refuse.

Given that any Bond game is automatically going to be compared to Goldeneye, pretyt much everyone comes in at a disadvatage. Heck, even the peopel who made Goldeneye, Free Radical, are at a disadvatage with their near-Goldeneye stuff. Timplitters 3 was panned pretty hard after they did such a good job on 2. Must be hard to hold onto talent.:sad: