Summary
Nightdive Studios has recently confirmed its previous plans to remaster one of theNintendo 64’s most iconic games. Unfortunately, after a confident pitch, the team’s plans were shot down in flames. As Nintendo’s fifth-generation console, a successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, theNintendo 64housed a plethora of unforgettable games, including the launch titleSuper Mario 64andThe Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Based in Vancouver, Washington, and founded by Stephen and Alix Kick, Nightdive Studios is known for securing the rights to abandonware video games, remastering them, and re-releasing projects for modern consoles. One talking point from the studio recently concernedNightdive’s complicated development remasteringSystem Shock 3, explaining that the game’s future is currently uncertain.
In an interview with VGC, Nightdive head Kick revealed the team had devised a solid plan to remaster the acclaimedGoldenEye 007, but after pitching to Nintendo, the publisher said, “Yeah, no third party’s ever going to touch any Nintendo stuff, ever,” and the team failed to gain permission.GoldenEye 007is one of themost influential FPS games worth playing for its importance to the genre, joining the originalDoom,Half-Life, andWolfenstein 3D, and Nightdive even had theJames Bondrights owners, MGM and Eon, on board for the remaster’s development. Kick explained Nintendo’s reasoning was “kind of minimal,” which was a major blow for Nightdive considering the team put “a lot of effort” into the pitch.
Nightdive Studios Once Pitched a GoldenEye 007 Remaster to Nintendo
GoldenEye 007joins the Nintendo Switch’s catalog of Nintendo 64 games, and during the publisher’s recent Direct showcase covering the successor console, it was confirmed that theNintendo 64 games will be getting new features on the Switch 2when it launches on May 19, 2025, including customized button mapping, a rewind option, and a retro filter.GoldenEye 007was first released in 1997, developed by Rare and published by Nintendo, and the story was based on the 1995James Bondfilm of the same name. Players take part in a series of levels to take down enemies and complete objectives, and a multiplayer mode allows up to four players to enter into deathmatch scenarios.
The studio’s plate is never empty, that’s for certain, asNightdive wants to remaster Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamesin the future, and the team has been asking gamers for their input on which titles to revive. The studio has remadeTurok 3,Star Wars: Dark Forces,The Thing,Quake 2, and much more to date, and some of the community’s requests for remasters includeLost Odyssey,Blue Dragon,The Darkness, andYakuza: Dead Souls.
