Nintendo and Rare do not own the rights to GoldenEye. After the game was released Nintendo did not renew the license with MGM and this is how EA purchased the license to make 007: The World is Not Enough and subsequent games based off of the James Bond license.
Furthermore, any game code, characters, and the title of games made from the use of a licensed property belongs to the licensee which is MGM or its parent company. Then their is also the Right's to use Piers Brosnan's image that must be secured.
Therefore Nintendo nor Rare own the rights to GoldenEye or anything pertaining to the game i.e. game code or characters or maps.
The race for the N64 rights to James Bond 19: The World is Not Enough is on:
http://ign64.ign.com/articles/066/066355p1.html
No More Bond for Rare:
http://ign64.ign.com/articles/061/061742p1.html
If Nintendo is successful at the moment, it’s because they are good, and I cannot blame them for that. What we should do is try to be just as good.----Laurent Benadiba
