It appears like Activision's contract for the Bond license ended when the calendar turned to 2013 as 007 Legends and other Bond games have been yanked off Steam and older Bond games are also being pulled from XBLA. 

The rumors were that along with dismantled Eurocom (the studio behind GoldenEye 007 for Wii and 007 Legends), Activision was going to pass on renewing the license. They just have never been able to release a truly great game using the license. 

Nintendo should approach the Danjaq/ION (Bond license holders) and see if a deal can't be worked out. EA has had their turn and moved on, so has Activision, so who's left? Ubi Soft maybe? After that, Nintendo could outbid pretty much anyone I would think. The license hasn't done that well for anyone since GoldenEye on the N64, perhaps the Bond folkes will look at Nintendo and welcome them taking over the license for a while. 

Or perhaps a deal could be worked out where say a Square-Enix or Ubi Soft gets the rights to make multiplatform Bond games, but Nintendo gets the exclusive rights to FPS Bond games.

Give the license to Retro or NST or make a new studio in Europe. Nintendo can try I guess to make a new IP that would have the same appeal, but lets face it -- in terms of "cool" factor, no one beats Bond (many have tried over the years). And the character is "PG-13" enough that he doesn't embarrass or taint Nintendo's family brand too much, but he's cool enough to give Nintendo a solid "in" with the hardcore crowd. 

If they can return the series back to glory then I am all for it.  It would give Nintendo an exclusive FPS.

Doesn't sony own the bond movie license? seems like if anyone ever had exclusive rights to bond, it would be them

Danjaq/EON technically own the Bond license. MGM and Sony (movie division) distribute the film releases but they don't "own" the license or have any real say over it.

I don't think Sony could outbid Nintendo anyway. They don't have the money.

Sony has a say in the bond games though, the past 2 bond games

Goldeneye reloaded

007 legends

All had exclusive content on PS3, meaning they have some power, and i don't think nintendo could outbid sony

If Sony wants to bid on it, great. That fat debt they have could put a damper on things pretty quick, and Nintendo was also involved in GoldenEye 007, Sony just got a port of it one year late. 

I've also heard that internally at Danjaq, Barbara Broccoli (the woman who basically oversees the entire 007 franchise) has always held GoldenEye on the N64 to be a very special thing for the Bond license in general because it introduced a lot of young people to the franchise. 

So I think Nintendo could make a case. Everyone else in the last 10 years has basically screwed the franchise up and not done it proper justice. Sony can't even get exclusive game rights to movie licenses that they own 100% like Spider-Man, they are only an auxiliary player in the Bond movies. 

Nintendo held the license and allowed Rare to use it for Goldeneye. The original Goldeneye was never on any system except N64.

I am not sure who holds power over the license now, but I assumed it was Sony.

The license went from Nintendo to Electronic Arts to Activision, and Activision's deal expired at the end of 2012 it seems.

Those are the only three companies to have rights to make Bond games since 1995.

My understanding is in 1997 Nintendo wanted to re-new the Bond license, but Rare (specifically Martin Hollis) talked them out of it in favor of making Perfect Dark, to which honestly I think maybe Nintendo should not have listened to Rare on that. Let them make Perfect Dark sure, but they should've kept the Bond license as well. 

Well, whoever gets it I hope they will make best out of it - I'm hoping for Ubi, they already have excellent next-gen engines in place to make great TPP stealth/action-adventure game.

As for FPS, Nintendo would be smart to grab it, I think they really need some great FPS like that if they are still serious about attracting more "core" people to WiiU, and as for Sony, I think they would be foolish to let this pass. considering success of Skyfall.

Screw the James Bond license. Yeah, I said it. There were Bond games before Goldeney and there were Bond games, after. The reason we care isn't because of the license. It's because the game using the license was so good (by 1997 standards). Nintendo should just create and 100% own their own FPS or TPS IP. That way, there is no issue ten years from now when an agreement goes down the drain.