A few years ago, it was rumored that there was an HD remaster of the N64 James Bond classic GoldenEye 007 for the Xbox 360 in the works, and the good news is that those rumors were confirmed. The bad news was that it was reported in 2008 that the game was “delayed indefinitely,” and eight years later, it sure looks like that means it’s not ever going to happen.

The game was squashed when Nintendo and Microsoft couldn’t agree on licensing terms, since GoldenEye 007 was initially released exclusively on the N64. However, we have some somewhat positive news (via Engadget): Although the game isn’t coming out, YouTube user Rare Thief has uploaded about 30 minutes of gameplay footage from the unreleased game, and it’s a shame the title never came to fruition.

The remaster is just that: A remaster, not a recreation, so instead of making GoldenEye look like it was developed yesterday, it keeps the same polygonal shapes and updates them with high-resolution textures, graphically giving the title a foot in both the past and present. It also upped the frame rate to 60fps and would have included an online multiplayer mode tailored to the Xbox 360.

There also would have been, aside from the original single-player campaign, new multiplayer maps, the option to have all character heights be equal, and to switch between the classic and the upgraded graphics. As far as remakes go, it looks like this will go down as one of the saddest what-if’s that never came to be.

Featured image: Rare/Nintendo