MI6 can confirm that Activision no longer hold
the licencing rights to publish videogames based on the James
Bond franchise.
The development is somewhat of a surprise considering that when
Activision took over the rights from Electronic Arts in 2006,
it was said the deal would run through 2014. Activision have
held exclusive rights to 007 games since September
2007.
The first signals were noticed shortly after
the New Year when 007 titles disappeared
from online sales portals such as Steam,
Xbox 360 Games on Demand and PlayStation Store. Activision also
removed online sales of the games from their own website.
Activision's latest Bond game released in late 2012, "007
Legends",
suffered poor reviews and equally disappointing
sales, causing
the developer
Eurocom
to shut its doors in bankruptcy. They had enjoyed
success in 2010 with "GoldenEye
007" for Wii, which
was respun in to "GoldenEye
007 Reloaded" for PS3 and
Xbox 260 in 2011.
Activision
also shuttered developer Bizarre Creations after "007:
Blood Stone" failed
to live up to expectations in 2010, as well as canceling an original
storyline game starring Daniel Craig mid-development at Raven
Software.
Their first game in 2008, titled
"Quantum of Solace"
to tie-in with the film, contained a lot of missions based
on "Casino Royale" and sold moderately well (EA terminating
their
rights
in 2006
lead them to abandon
their planned "Casino Royale" game).
At this time there are no indications as to
which publisher, if any, will be taking over the James Bond videogame
rights. But given Sony's involvement in the next two movies and their
large network of PlayStation development studios, it would not
be surprising if Sony Computer Entertainment was an interested
party.
