Trivia / GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

• Creator Backlash: The Troubled Production and failure of this game drove Danny Bilson, the writer of EA's James Bond games, to quit Electronic Arts for good.
• Role Reprise: Sir Christopher Lee, who starred in the films a few decades prior to the game's release, reprises his role of Scaramanga.
• Stillborn Franchise: EA wanted a sequel, but since the game bombed it vanished.
• Troubled Production: According to screenwriter Danny Bilson in a video and interview with Lucas Raycevick, the game was "our dream that became kind of a nightmare" thanks to this trope.
  • The concept started when Bilson and writing partner Paul DeMeo, having written prior James Bond games under the flag of Electronic Arts, pitched a Bond game where the player would be a rogue MI6 agent playing both sides in a "gang war" between Bond villains Dr. No and Auric Goldfinger. Despite certain restrictions coming down from EON and MGM regarding the pitch, it quickly entered pre-production at EA Los Angeles.
  • Just as quickly, troubles descended down on the project. EA mandated that it needed a quick turnaround, as EA was intent on keeping its Bond games to a yearly release cycle and had 007: From Russia with Love lined up for 2005. EA LA manager John Batter named the game Goldeneye: Rogue Agent for marketing reasons, despite the game having no relation to the film or the game of the same name. Bilson took particular exception to this, noting that the name would bring unfair comparisons.
  • EA Los Angeles attempted to overhaul its technology during development. The modified Unreal Engine 2 version they used had come under fire for its dated graphics in Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, pressuring the studio to take action. With EA demanding that Rogue Agent be released within nine months, EA LA found themselves gutting the concept in order to make it work within the confines of their in-progress engine upgrade and the strict deadline imposed by EA. Bilson was dismayed as communication between the creatives and the development team grew "out of sync", and virtually all the storylines and ambitious setpieces he had drawn up was cut in the mad dash to present a shippable product.
  • The game also had knock-on effects with Timesplitters Future Perfect, developed by former Rare veterans at Free Radical, as EA slashed the marketing budget for Future Perfect in favour of Rogue Agent.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The developers of the game intended it to be much more ambitious than it ended up being. Unfortunately, its Troubled Production and lack of time led to it being the disaster it became.
  • EA's original plan was to recast every classical character derived from the series with newer actors, leading them to consider casting Jessica Biel in the role of Pussy Galore, but it eventually fell apart.
  • GoldenEye himself was originally modeled after Gary Oldman.

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