Goldeneye 007, the classic Nintendo 64 game, has finally been unbanned after almost two decades since its first release. The game was “banned” for sale in Germany and has now been excluded from the German BPjM (an upper-level German federal agency) list of “Media Harmful to Young Persons,” which profoundly limited its sales in Germany.
Rare’s iconic multiplayer game had been part of the German Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Minors list for a while, but as per Schnittberichte.com, Goldeneye 007 was recently excluded from the list. This unbanning means that the game is now allowed to be advertised and sold in stores in Germany. Usually, there is an automatic review of any media on the list after 25 years, but Goldeneye 007 has seen an early release.
It could be possible that someone was pressing for its expulsion from the list early. But further details are still pretty scarce. The German site Schnittberichte.com also writes that Stadlbauer Marketing – a toymaker who licenses Mario Kart for its Carrera slot car line – owns the German rights to Goldeneye 007. This unbanning of the game could lead to a potential re-release in one form or another, whether on Nintendo Switch Online, Xbox, or others. Currently, Rare is owned by Microsoft and it would be interesting to see what the company does with its newly unbanned IP.
While Goldeneye 007 being excluded from the German BPjM list is a step in the right direction, a lot of work is still needed to get the game running on modern platforms. Starting with negotiating the rights. Goldeneye 007 was released in 1997 and is almost 24 years old at this point. If the game has to be re-released with all its original content, Nintendo or another company would need to resolve the rights for the James Bond license. Furthermore, the companies involved will need to settle the rights for the actors’ faces that appear in the game in digital forms like our protagonist Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Robbie Coltrane, and others.
Regardless, Goldeneye 007 being unbanned from the list is a great sign and will excite fans and players. It will be interesting to see the game being enhanced and re-released on newer hardware with the old classical mechanics and multiplayer aspects that the game had when it first came out. The game had gotten good reviews all around and Rare even released a successor to the game called Perfect Dark for the Nintendo 64 in 2000.
