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Activision's Beenox studio have confirmed they are
porting the new James Bond videogame to the Nintendo
Wii platform...
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Beenox Confirms Nintendo Wii Version
4th January 2008
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Videogame studio Beenox - which is owned
by Activision - today confirmed that they are porting the
new James Bond title to the Nintedno Wii platform.
Wii Play
Thomas Wilson, creative director of Beenox,
confirmed the news to GamesIndustry. "Right
now we're working on a James Bond Wii title in conjunction
with Treyarch (another Activision studio)
and we're rolling with it because we're really good at
what we're doing and Activision doesn't want to send their
ports anywhere else," said Wilson, who's confident
the studio can put its own stamp on the title despite
not working on the original content. |
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"One thing we want to make sure of if we're making the
Wii version is that we absolutely want the controls to be top
notch. Although we don't fully control the original development
content because it's in collaboration with Treyarch, that's one
thing that we can do – make sure we put out a strong Wii
title. We're almost ahead of the title that is being developed
with Treyarch at the moment, so we're saying that we're ready
and waiting for stuff. That's the Beenox way of doing things,
we don't want to waste time, we want to be productive."
Beenox has previously ported other Activision licenced titles
such as Spider-Man, Shrek and X-Men.
A Common Goal
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick foreshadowed these sentiments back
in November. Speaking about Activision's direction with the 007
licence, he said "Bond
is one of the great videogame franchises of all time and that
really
was
a
result
of GoldenEye
64. I think the key to re-energising the Bond franchise is
going to be ultimately the highest possible game quality."
Having already confirmed their first
James Bond game was officially
in production back in August, Activision revealed
in November that a second title based on the 007 licence was
under parallel
development. Kotick said that the
company is committed to revitalising the James Bond brand - "one
of the greatest videogame franchises of all time" - while
revealing the publisher has two projects based on the license
in development. "We have our best development studios
working on the product, we have a second team working on another
Bond product and we're putting great resources against it," he
added.
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MI6 understands the first
Bond game produced by Activision will be a blend
of elements from Casino Royale
and the upcoming Bond
22, which it is expected to ship alongside in November
2008.
The game is in development by powerhouse
studios Treyarch, Beenox and Vicarious Visions for next-generation
consoles, Windows PC and hand-held platforms. Treyarch
are understood to be heading up development on Xbox 360
and PlayStation 3 consoles, with Beenox producing the
Nintendo Wii version, and Vicarious Visions working on
the hand-held platforms. Treyarch recently released "Call
of Duty 3" and "Spider-Man 3".
007 Racing Redux
Activision recently announced the acquisition
of development studio Bizarre Creations. Besides having
another racing title in the pipeline, MI6
previously reported that Bizarre Creations will be
working on one of the franchise's that they own, as well. "We
believe in brands and franchises not individual titles,
so we'll be working with Bizarre to develop a great concept
and brand in racing, as well as working with their second
team, which is very talented in the action genre. This
team will most probably be working on a property that Activision
already owns," said Activision's EVP, Robin Kaminsky.
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Above: Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.
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It has not been confirmed that
Bizzarre Creations are developing the second Bond title for Activision,
but recent
rumours say that "it appears [Bizzarre Creations] are
working on a James Bond project -- but one with a load of driving
elements".
Previous videogame licencee Electronic Arts flirted with different
ways to use the James Bond licence, including the critically-slammed "Goldeneye:
Rogue Agent" in 2004 where players took control of a villain.
EA also tested out the driving genre with "007
Racing" in
2000, which was also met with poor reviews. MI6 can reveal that
a sequel was in the pipeline but was canned mid-way through production.
Stay tuned for the latest news
on the upcoming 007 titles from Activision on MI6 - the only
James Bond
site with
extensive coverage of the videogames.
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