Promising GoldenEye fan remake GoldenEye 25 has been given a cease and desist by IP holders MGM/Danjaq. The developers announced the news on Twitter, stating that they're removing the Bond theme in response and rebranding it as Project Ianus: an FPS "inspired by 90's classics".
"We're sad to announce that we've been kindly asked by the IP holder (MGM/Danjaq) to cease development of GoldenEye 25. This was always in the back of our heads as a possibility but we've tried our best to keep going. [...] We cannot do a Bond game but we can still do a great game with all the beloved aspects of our favourite 90's action shooter."
pic.twitter.com/AX04L3nPbCAugust 11, 2020
The mission statement for GoldenEye 25 was for it to be an Unreal Engine remake of GoldenEye 64's single-player campaign, to be finished in time for its 25th anniversary in August 2022. All of the remake's assets were being made from scratch, so presumably some can be carried over to the new iteration of the project, which already has its own Twitter account. The team has even released an early screenshot of Project Ianus, which you can see above.
"No doubt you're wondering what's happened," the developers tweeted earlier today. "We're not allowed to continue using the name GoldenEye or the James Bond characters. We'll take what we've made and create an original game. Unfortunate, but at least we can be on Steam now and console ports are possibilities."
Back in September, the team released a video showing off their version of GoldenEye 64's Silo level. Here's a glimpse of what could have been.
