Rare Explains Absence of Goldeneye From its HD Collection

After the tentative excitement over the release of Rare Replay, a collection of 30 Rare-developed games, re-released in glorious HD, which was announced at E3, there followed the lamenting cries, “Where is Goldeneye?” The classic N64 007 first-person shooter was suspiciously absent from the list of games that included Banjo-Kazooie, Battletoads, and Goldeneye’s spiritual sequel, Perfect Dark, but now Rare has explained the game’s unfortunate omission.

Nick Burton, Rare’s new Technology Development Lead, explained to Polygon, “We looked at 120 games in our back catalog, put them all up on a big whiteboard, and we sort of started grading them, right? When you’ve got so many games, there are going to be certain [factors] like who owns what, but when you’ve got that many, you choose the ones that fit the best.”

According to Rare’s Studio Operations Director Drew Quakenbush (best surname ever), the team focused on games that featured characters and settings developed by Rare itself which meant Goldeneye, derived from the James Bond intellectual property, wasn’t eligible.

“One of the main selection points was: are these characters and worlds that Rare made independently, as Rare Studios? That was kind of the first criteria,” said Quakenbush. “Then we asked: were they fun, how well have they aged, etc. We wanted to bring in a broad range of games: popular games that would hit that nostalgic beat that everyone likes.”

The Xbox One exclusive Rare Replay will be released on 4^th August, priced £19.99 ($29.99).

Thank you Polygon for providing us with this information.