James Bond in video games


The James Bond video game franchise is a series of predominantly shooter games and games of other genres. Several games are based upon the Production of the James Bond films and developed and published by a variety of companies, centering on Ian Fleming's fictional British MI6 agent, James Bond. The intellectual property is owned by Danjaq.

History

Early era (1983–1994)

In 1983, Parker Brothers released first James Bond video game, James Bond 007, for multiple consoles.
Since 1983, there have been numerous video games based on the films, Ian Fleming's novels, and original scripts created by the developer or publisher of the game.
The video games were somewhat profitable in the 1980s and early 1990s, featuring a mixture of styles including side-scrolling action and text adventure.

Nintendo era (1995–1998)

The popularity of the James Bond video game series did not rise quickly, however, until 1997's GoldenEye 007 by Rare for the Nintendo 64. GoldenEye 007 expanded on the plot of the film GoldenEye, and is a first-person shooter with a multiplayer mode. The game received very positive reviews and sold over eight million copies.
In 1998, Nintendo released James Bond 007 for the Game Boy developed by Saffire. The game features a story including characters from multiple James Bond films, such as Oddjob and Jaws. It also incorporates gambling minigames, such as Baccarat and Blackjack.

Electronic Arts era (1999–2005)

The next Bond game, 1999's Tomorrow Never Dies, based on the film Tomorrow Never Dies, was the first released by Electronic Arts. Developed by Black Ops, it is a third-person shooter, released for PlayStation. The game was a financial success and received mixed reviews. The next titles, The World Is Not Enough and The World Is Not Enough, are first-person shooters. However, publisher Electronic Arts, which owned the rights to publish video games based on the Bond franchise, chose different developers for different systems - Eurocom for the Nintendo 64 and Black Ops for the PlayStation, with different results, and the N64 version getting better reviews. Both versions were critical and commercial successes. A Game Boy Color adaptation developed by 2n Productions, also titled The World Is Not Enough, was released in 2001. The game is played from a top-down perspective and contains eight levels.
In 2001, EA released ' for Xbox, PlayStation 2, and GameCube, featuring an original storyline and lacking the likeness of then Bond actor Pierce Brosnan. The game added the elements of "rail" shooting and driving segments to a first-person shooter. The game sold nearly 5 million copies, making it the second-most successful game in the series, while only receiving mixed reviews. There are no differences between the console versions.
In 2002, ' was released, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the film franchise and retaining Brosnan's likeness for the Bond character. It was developed by Eurocom for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox consoles, with a PC port by Gearbox Software and a Mac port by Aspyr. The computer versions are substantially different from the console versions, featuring different missions, a modified story line, and online play. In 2003, the game also had a Game Boy Advance version by JV Games, which also differs from both the console versions and PC versions.
In 2004, EA released ', developed by EA Redwood, for the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox. Unlike the two previous installments, Everything or Nothing is a third-person shooter with driving missions, and it stars the voices and likenesses of Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench, Willem Dafoe and John Cleese, among others. It was written by the scriptwriter of GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies, screenwriter Bruce Feirstein, with a plot connected to the Roger Moore Bond film A View to a Kill. It was released to mostly positive reviews, the game also had a Game Boy Advance version by JV Games, which differs from the console versions.
Later that year, ' was released on the same platforms with the exception of the Game Boy Advance version. A first-person shooter loosely connected to the Bond franchise a spin-off, it stars a former MI6 spy known as "GoldenEye", who works for Auric Goldfinger against Dr. Julius No. The game was panned for its misleading title and poor storyline. The game was released on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and Nintendo DS. EA listed 007 Racing and GoldenEye: Rogue Agent as spin-offs, out of their canonical order they have built.
2005 saw the release of From Russia with Love, based on the film From Russia with Love. It stars Sean Connery as James Bond, and the other characters had the same likeness of the original cast. The game is a third-person shooter in the same style as Everything or Nothing, with expansions in the story and certain details changed. The game received positive reviews, and was released on GameCube, Xbox, PS2 and PSP.
Electronic Arts announced in 2006 a game based on then-upcoming Casino Royale, but it ended up being cancelled, because it would not be ready by the film's release in November. This fact, which would lead MGM to lose millions in licensing fees, along with EA's commitment to move away from movie franchise games and focus more on internal intellectual properties, led the company to abandon the Bond franchise in May 2006.

Activision era (2006–2013)

Shortly after Electronic Arts abandoned the license, in May 2006, Activision acquired non-exclusive rights to develop and publish James Bond games, which were to become exclusive in 2007. Activision's first game was a tie-in to Quantum of Solace. ', which also included elements from Casino Royale, was released on 31 October 2008. it was released on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, PC, Wii and DS. The game received mixed reviews, with the PlayStation 2 version receiving the best reviews.
At E3 2010, Nintendo revealed GoldenEye 007, a remake for the Wii of the 1997 game. Developed by Eurocom, using their ' game engine, the game updated the story of the movie, with a script by Bruce Feirstein and the current Bond actor Daniel Craig as 007, it received positive reviews. A month later, a leaked media release suggested that Activision had hired Bizarre Creations to work on ', an original Bond story written by Feirstein. Both games were released on November 2010. Blood Stone was released for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and DS, with mixed-to-positive reviews.
In December 2010, a video and some screenshots from a new Bond game were leaked, identified as developed by Raven Software. The game was thought to be set for release in 2011, but Activision did not commented on any connection or status of that apparent title. In 2011 Activision ported GoldenEye 007 to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. Entitled GoldenEye 007: Reloaded, it presents an HD remastering of the original Nintendo Wii shooter from the previous year.
On 19 April 2012, Activision announced plans for a game titled "007 Legends" to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the James Bond film franchise. The game has been described as a "greatest hits compilation", retelling six film narratives with an overarching storyline to connect them together. Activision did not comment on which film stories would be included in the game, but announced that the gameplay mechanics would return to the first-person shooter after ' experimented with the third-person perspective suggesting that this had been the case due to the mixed reviews the game in question had received. On 21 May 2012, Activision released the first trailer for 007 Legends. Thereafter, the missions were revealed to be based upon Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Moonraker, Licence to Kill and Die Another Day. On 9 November 2012, Activision added the last mission to the game, released as a downloadable content, which was based on Skyfall. The game received negative reviews from several reviewers. Eurocom has since closed down.
On 4 January 2013, Activision and Steam's online stores removed online availability and pages for Quantum of Solace, , and 007 Legends without explanation or warning, only to confirm three days later that the James Bond game license was revoked.
A month later, Activision themselves declared that they would be backing away from licensed games in a formal statement.

Future

On 7 January 2014, president and co-founder of Telltale Games, Kevin Bruner has expressed an interest in making a future James Bond game if he were afforded the chance. He stated that "I'm a giant James Bond fan and I'm always frustrated by games that make him a mass murderer." When he was asked which license he would adapt next if money and licensing hurdles were not a factor. "He's a super-spy, and that's a different skillset. The films make him less of a mass murderer, and there's not much killing in the books – more spying and intrigue." A rumour surfaced in June 2017 that Telltale was working on a video game entitled 007 Solstice. However, its status proved unlikely when Telltale filed for bankruptcy and closed down in November 2018.
On 21 January 2016, president of Curve Digital, Dominic Wheatley expressed his interest alongside the company in the series, saying "I'd be very happy to have a James Bond licence. We could do a cracking game around that," adding that these opportunities are overlooked by the bigger firms, since Electronic Arts and Activision have their own IPs and no longer want to "promote someone else's brand."

Cancelled games

;Octopussy
Shortly after James Bond 007 was released in 1983 by Parker Brothers, another video game was announced, titled Octopussy, based on the film of the same name. The game was planned for release on the Atari 2600 System, Mattel Intellivision, and compatible systems. Set for release in the summer of 1983, it was cancelled for unknown reasons shortly after it was announced by Parker Brothers.
;GoldenEye 007
A racing version of GoldenEye 007 was announced for the Virtual Boy. The game was cancelled in 1996.
A revamped version of the Nintendo 64 game GoldenEye 007 by Rare was scheduled for release on Xbox 360's Live Arcade on 27 February 2008, but Microsoft couldn't get the publishing rights from the intellectual property owners, Danjaq, LLC, resulting in the cancelation of the project. It was rumored that Nintendo or Activision may have been involved in the project's cancellation, but no sources confirm the rumor.
;Tomorrow Never Dies: The Mission Continues
The original VHS release of Tomorrow Never Dies featured a brief trailer with Desmond Llewelyn which highlighted a game that would "start where the film ends". Footage shows Bond skiing, scuba diving and driving in third person and on a first-person shooting mission. The game was to come out on PlayStation and PC in the fall of 1998 and was being made by MGM Interactive, not EA; EA was not involved in Bond until November of that year. Because MGM's motion picture division had licensed exclusive James Bond console rights to Nintendo, MGM had to buy some of their rights back from Nintendo in order to make the game.
A Tomorrow Never Dies game was released on 16 November 1999, distributed by EA, but with notable differences from the 1998 attempt. The game was a third-person shooter with no scuba diving level. The story follows the plot of the film, not the continuation that had been planned.
A level in the game sees Bond skiing down a mountain and killing a Japanese terrorist named Sotoshi Isagura, while on another stage Bond has a driving mission in Switzerland. These were not from the film and may have survived from the 'continuation' story.
;The World Is Not Enough
A game based on the 1999 film The World Is Not Enough film and using the Quake III Arena engine for the PC and PlayStation 2 was cancelled in favor for . Electronic Arts thought, by 2001, that too much time has passed since the release of the film, and that fans would be no longer interested in the product as talks of the succeeding film in the series, Die Another Day, were taking place.
;007 Racing sequel
A PlayStation 2 sequel to 007 Racing was rumoured to be in development.
;Bond6
EA Games began conceptual work on the game in 2003, under the working title of Bond6. The game was originally meant to be released in 2005, set to star Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. A video game adaptation of From Russia with Love began development when Brosnan announced that he was stepping down from the role, which ended plans for Bond6. CGI work for the game was reused in television commercials for GoldenEye: Rogue Agent.
;Casino Royale
A game was in development based on the film of the same name. Daniel Craig, in character as Bond, was going to give his voice and likeness to the video game. It was set to release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms. The game was 15% developed when the project was cancelled, as Electronic Arts would not finish it by the film's release in November 2006. Later, unfinished development screenshots from the Venice level were uncovered. Activision's debut in the series, Quantum of Solace, combines the storylines of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.
;Blood Stone sequel
In December 2010, some screenshots and a video were leaked online that depicted a new James Bond game, which shared similar gameplay to its predecessor, Blood Stone. Reportedly, the project had been in development by Raven Software, but was postponed six months prior to the leak, at which point the game was believed to be back in development. However, the game was ultimately cancelled due to Blood Stone's poor sales.
;Skyfall
In January 2012, it was announced that a video game based on Skyfall would be released by Activision. Ultimately, a downloadable level based on Skyfall was released for Activision's 007 Legends, although a full game was not released.

Other games

Mobile and smartphone games

Since 2002, games featuring the Bond character and the 007 trademark have been published and distributed on mobile phones. The first two are based on action sequences from Die Another Day, one of them is titled Hover Chase and the other is Ice Racer. Both were published by Vodafone.
With the official reboot of the film franchise in 2006, Sony Online Entertainment released a side-scroll action game based on Casino Royale developed by Glu Mobile, following a storyline inspired by the film. Similarly, an identical tie-in based on Quantum of Solace was released in 2008 by the same team. The same year, Sony Online Entertainment Los Angeles developed and published an arcade fighting game to coincide with the aforementioned film, entitled Top Agent.
In 2014, it was reported that Glu Mobile was working on another mobile game bearing the James Bond license. A year later, its title was revealed as World of Espionage, a point-and-click game retelling several previous storylines from the film series, debuting an early access mode in July 2015 and releasing a full version of the game in November later that year. The game, after being universally panned for its uninspired content, was removed from the online mobile stores in December 2016 and Glu Mobile pulled the plug on the title.

Fanmade remakes

There are two separate fan-made remakes based on GoldenEye 007:
In 2013, fans of the original began porting the PC version to the Source engine, planning to release it on Steam as Nightfire: Source.

Appearance in other media

Downloadable content featuring a pack of cars used in the James Bond films is available in Forza Horizon 4, officially branded and licensed by Danjaq, LLC.