If you' ve read the latest issue of EGM, you' ve probably cried over the apparently silent death of an Xbox Live Arcade version of Rare and Nintendo' s classic James Bond shooter for the Nintendo 64, GoldenEye 007. Quartermann' s rumor mongering didn' t elaborate much, but there' s definitely more to the story.

The GoldenEye port has been in development at Rare for several months, and was never intended as a remake. The XBLA version would have featured the same graphics, maps and weapons from the N64 version, but with the crucial addition of online multiplayer over Xbox Live. Several characters wouldn' t make the cut due to licensing issues with certain actors.

Unfortunately, the reason GoldenEye for XBLA died came down to money. Our source close to Rare said the conversion was a mere two months from completion, but Microsoft and Nintendo couldn' t agree on the financial side of things. The point of contention, as our source puts it: would Nintendo receive a one-time fee for the rights to the game, or a continuing cut of the XBLA revenues? The latter seems to make sense for everyone, but apparently it wasn' t that easy.

From what we' re told, the best way to get this port back on track is to show Microsoft and Nintendo how badly you want it. If it all comes down to money, show ' em that you want to give yours. As soon as we hear anything more, we' ll let you know.