Contract Stops Bond Games Being Released Head To Head

An article from the latest issue of NGC Magazine, #66 released on Thursday 14th In the U.K, reports that EA's latest Bond game title 'Agent Under Fire' may not appear on GameCube and XBox consoles in Europe. Playstation 2 has a six-month exclusivity deal, and as Agent Under Fire was released in November in America on the PS2 console, it cannot be released until May time in Europe. The problem is caused because 'Phoenix Rising', EAs next Bond game, is out in November to coincide with 'Die Another Day' being released in Cinemas.

As NGC puts it, "Launching two Bond games within six months of each other would only ever be considered by a publisher consumed by a nauseating greed for cold, hard cash"

We have to remember that the game is being published by EA, who release the same title every year, with minor changes–FIFA 200X. This may suggest that NGCs theory is correct. Hence the secrecy of the plans to include Die Another Day plot and scenarios in Phoenix Rising, I believe it will contain elements of the movie in the game–it would suggest this by releasing the game at the same time as the movie and causing strains on contracts by doing this.

CBn will report more on this matter as soon as more information is available.

Thanks to Richard who notified us about this story in the NGC magazine.