http://mundorare.com/news/2008/10/one-last-martini-to-goldeneye/

Haha sounds like Nintendo owned everyone. MS, Rare, Activision, and the gamers in this one haha. Well it was a longshot to begin with but I would love to hear Nintendo's side on all this.

Pretty easy fix - Swap license rights. If MS gives Nintendo access to have Halo 1 & 2 ported to the Wii, Nintendo gives rights for the XBLA version of Goldeneye. Its not like anyone is making money off the old games as is, so might as well do a fair trade. Im sure bungie would like to play with some Wii motion controls in their development now that they are no longer directly owned by MS

Why would they let it be released?

Seems like Nitnendo was getting the Raw end of the stick on that. "Hey can we release the game you hold rights too for free on Xbox live but souped up! We'll let you release the old regular version for free too!"

It's a chumps deal.

You can blame Nintendo but they wouldn't of won by this.  Not for a longshot.  You'd need to throw more in the pot then the old N64 version.

Well in a way I'm sure Ninty sees it like that considering the only reason MS is involved is due to the Rare part.  I think what Ninty probably had an issue with was that it was created without their oversight.  And then all of a sudden it's submitted to them for approval.  I think Ninty would have liked to have oversight of the production or work on it themselves instead.  That's what I'd see them having the most problem with.  I mean it's just as much there game as it is Rare's.

I don't get Nintendo's attitude on this. Seems like pettiness for the sake of it. Since Rare are doing the work, sounds like Nintendo are passing up free money, AND denying Wii owners the chance to download a classic title that actually doesn't involve Mario in some way.

If I get 5 points and my opponent gets 15 it is not win win.

I have through said deal given my opponenet an advantage. 

It would be like spending a Rook to catch a Knight... even when you have more pieces on the board it's a foolish strategy.

Microsoft told them they can't change the version at all, but Microsoft can?

As I said most of it probably has to do with Nintendo not having any oversight over it's production.  I'd be pretty pissed about that myself too if something that was more mine than theirs was created and you don't get a choice on development issues.  I say that considering the Goldeneye team is mostly gone from Rare anyways so probably more Ninty than Rare's anyways in that respect. 

But anyways I'm sure another piece of it has to do with basically this game would already go to VC if it ever released anyways while it necessarily wouldn't have to go to XBLA.  So I'm assuming as many have said they were getting the short side of the stick while they could see MS as getting a free ride.  Which probaby isn't true considering MS funded the development of the game and Activision with the distribution.

So really it's just more licensing issues, money, and stubborness causing this game to not get released.  Hopefully sooner or later they'll make a deal to help get this out.  Possibly through compromise of another title from Rare on VC or both but who knows.

Microsoft would agree to let Nintendo launch the game on Wii’s Virtual Console if Nintendo agreed to let Microsoft launch it on Xbox Live Arcade.

Granted this was before Wii Wares announcement but it would seem to indicate this yes.

Even if it wasn't the case.  Microsoft has already committed resources to it and played it's hand therefore it's only natural they should have to give up more... not to mention they had more to gain by having the larger install base at the time.

Had it stayed a secret perhaps this game would of came out once the install bases headed towards parity but it seems unlikely as releasing it now would just wouldn't help Nintendo as much sicne it would confirm it was "there fault."