Throughout 2022, The GoldenEye Dossier will celebrate the 25th anniversary of a video game that marked a generation and set the standard for the modern first-person shooters: GOLDENEYE 007. Developed by Rare and released on August 25, 1997, for the Nintendo 64 console system, this product was based on the 1995 James Bond film of the same name and grossed over $250 million worldwide (seven million copies sold worldwide by 2001), becoming the third-best-selling N64 title after SUPER MARIO 64 and MARIO KART 64.
Development began as early as Janury 1995, when GOLDENEYE started production and members of the team were invited to take photographs of the sets at Leavesden Studios to build the models of most of the 20 levels the player will have to beat controlling James Bond. The polygonal character were modeled after production stills of the cast of the film such as Pierce Brosnan, Izabella Scorupco, Sean Bean, Famke Janssen and Gottfried John.
GOLDENEYE 007 was so popular that there had always been attempts to bring it back: in 2004, Electronic Arts toyed with the GOLDENEYE brand with a spin-off title, GOLDENEYE: ROGUE AGENT, where the player assumed the identity of a rogue MI6 agent who interacted with classic villains such as Dr No and Auric Goldfinger. Six years later, Activision released a remake of the Nintendo 64 title written by Bruce Feirstein and adapted for the 2010s where Daniel Craig lent his voice talent and likeness for the role of James Bond. There was also an attempt to deliver a high-definition XBLA 360 port of the original in 2008, but for different legal reasons involving Danjaq and Nintendo, the project didn't materialize and was kept in the shadows for more than a decade until 2021, when an anonymous party known as "Fyodorovna" leaked it on the net.
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