GoldenEye 007
Image: EON/MGM

Rare's 1997 Nintendo 64 release GoldenEye 007 is arguably one of the greatest video games of all time. The Xbox 360 version, which never saw the light of day due to licensing complications, was leaked last year, and since then, there have been ongoing rumours about this classic first-person shooter returning in some way or form.

Now, ahead of next week's Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, achievements for the title have appeared on the official Xbox website. As described by our sister website Pure Xbox:

"Each achievement is also accompanied by a screenshot from the game, and they appear to show that its graphics are very similar to the original N64 release, with character models looking very blocky and low-quality in particular."

In addition to this, Rare employees have reportedly been spotted playing the game on Xbox. This discovery comes via TrueAchievements - a site known for tracking Xbox achievement activity.

Rare lead engineer James Thomas (who goes by the Gamertag 'BIGsheep') is apparently the one who has been caught unlocking achievements (again). Thomas previously worked on N64 ports for Rare Replay and was spotted six months ago popping achievements in this yet-to-be-announced release.

Although GoldenEye 007 was rumoured to be arriving much earlier this year, it's believed the Russian invasion of Ukraine may have resulted in a possible delay. These updates also follow on from the discovery GoldenEye 007 is no longer banned in Germany, which also led to speculation about a possible re-release.

Of course, the big question on the Nintendo front is will this game come to Switch? There's still some debate about what exactly this new version could be, which may determine the platforms it's made available on.

If we do get any updates, we'll let you know.

[source trueachievements.com, via videogameschronicle.com]