BM: - BondMovies.com
PG: - Patrick Gilmore, Executive Producer, Electronic Arts

(Beginning of interview)

PG: My name's Patrick Gilmore, I'm the executive producer.

BM: How many people are working on GoldenEye Rogue Agent?
PG: Well north of 120.

BM: What, in your opinion, is the hardest aspect of developing a game from scratch, along with the storyline, like you have for this game?
PG: Well the toughest part on this product has been crafting the story because for us, it was something new for EALA (Electronic Arts, Los Angeles), you know. It was not a game based on a movie. It's like a new intellectual property. It's a game based on a new character that we created. And we created in the context of this great legacy of James Bond movies. So we worked with Danjaq, who are the Cubby Broccoli family who have been creating the James Bond movies all these years, and with MGM, so we've got a lot of big, heavy-hittters who were involved in the process of developing the story for this game. And getting all those people in alignment about what the product needs to be, what the story needs to be, who the character was, what you do in the game, things like that...was challenging but fulfilling, and good for the product in the end.

BM: Compared to the other James Bond video games, what do you think is most unique about GoldenEye Rogue Agent?
PG: Well, in GoldenEye (Rogue Agent) we go deep in the first person shooter mechanic, and we really focus on the action on the ground, whereas a lot of James Bond films, a lot of James Bond games, though, what James Bond is all about is action on land, in the sea, in the air, so Bond is flying helicopters, flying jets. He's in tanks on the ground. He's, ya know, driving vehicles. He's engaged in gunfights and fistfights and he's also in the water on boats and submarines and Lotus Esprits that do all kinds of amazing things.

And our game is really just about the ground war. It's really just about that mechanic - the first person shooter mechanic, and putting our player in some of the best gunfights we can possibly create within the James Bond universe. So hopefully by focusing on one thing, we're doing it very, very well and really directing the product.

BM: In our opinion, will this game meet or exceed the success and the breakthroughs of GoldenEye 64?
PG: In my opinion? Absolutely! I mean, we're all big fans of the original GoldenEye. It's being made by people who, many of whom, are almost reverent about the original product, and we've taken things that were the hallmarks of the original product and we're trying to update them since the first game was done in 1997. We're now quite a ways further down the road. And, ya know, graphic quality, rendering quality, obviously all of that stuff has gone up. But also, methods of which we deliver content have also improved and gotten better. So, ya know, still the hot environment, still the A.I., it's still great enemy reactions, it's still amazing multiplayer. So we're taking those kind of 'tent poles' for the original James Bond game, the original GoldenEye game, and we're emphasizing them for this product. We're trying to just deliver them, but deliver them even more, and in a more kind of contemporary way. So lots of maturation has gone on.

BM: Considering the success of the original GoldenEye, do you think that the actual name GoldenEye attached to the game will be more of a help or a hindrance to the success of the game?
PG: So, GoldenEye for us really stands for the type of gameplay we aspire to. We have a lot of members on the team, and what the name means and what the name stands for, from a marketing context is sort of different from what it stands for from the people who are making the game. Like I said, there's a lot of people who are huge fans of the original product, and have an almost reverent attitude about the product. So it's not really whether it's a help or a hindrance. For us, it's really about the fact that it's a perfect raiser for guiding a product. If you have an answer about whether something belongs in your product or not, you have this kind of classic that you can use as your beacon - that is directing and focusing you on what the right things are for this game. We're not making a GoldenEye game that's going off in a different direction from the spirit of the original. Instead, we're taking that original and we are doing our best to sort of reach the lofty heights that its scaled.

BM: In terms of the game itself - I mean we've seen models for Goldfinger, we've seen models for Oddjob and Dr. No...But what can we expect in terms of playable characters in the multiplayer mode? Can we get to play as James Bond? Or will he be out of the game except for that first level?
PG: You're going to get to play as a whole variety of recognizable characters in the Bond universe. I can't tell you whether you'll be able to play as James Bond yet, because I don't know myself. As far as being able to play as Dr. No - absolutely. Being able to play as Xenia Onatopp - yes. Auric Goldfinger - absolutely. And a lot of characters that don't appear in the single player game, but who will be familiar characters from the Bond universe.

BM: Who wrote the overall script to the game? And who wrote the music score?
PG: The script was created in collaboration with MGM and Danjaq and was written by Danny Bilson and Paul DeMaio, who've been around for a long time that made several movies, lots and lots of TV - really veteran writers who were sort of jointly approved by all parties involved. It was Danny Bilson who came up with the original idea to set the whole game in this sort of alternate villain side of the Bond universe where Auric Goldfinger has not yet flown out the window of an airplane. And Dr. No hasn't fallen into the heavy water at his nuclear power plant. Instead, all of those victims...Sorry, all of those villains, are still sitting around the board room table in the most powerful criminal organization periodically victimizing one of those guys by electricity or whatever.

BM: Can we expect other tie-ins and references to previous Bond movies and games?
PG: Right, so part of the fun of the game is that, if you're a fan of James Bond, then some of the settings that you will recognize from James Bond movies, you'll actually get to go into and see all aspects of in this product. It's probably not - although we're not announcing it - it's probably not too difficult to guess that, given that Dr. No is one of your mortal enemies, you're likely to see some major set pieces from that film, for example.

BM: We know EoN was THX certified and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound compatible, will Rogue Agent be the same? Will it have progressive scan and hi-def?
PG: Yes.

BM: Will all of the weapons in the single player mode be available in the multiplayer mode?
PG: Yup.

BM: The explanation we've gotten so far is that the game starts out where you align yourself with Goldfinger and try to get revenge on Dr. No. Is there any additional story that you can reveal at this point? Or is everything under secrecy?
PG: Well you end up signing up for a lot more than you bargained for. The idea for your character is that you have no idea the scale of this gang war between the warring factions in this criminal institution, so you align yourself with Goldfinger, but you sort of get in over your head and end up being Goldfinger's main enforcer, and he sends you everywhere there's a hotspot in the world. The thing that we hope the player loses sight of, at least temporarily, is that there are many, many other villains in this universe, besides Goldfinger and Dr. No, and they are watching your performance with great interest. They will factor in the story in later levels.

(End of interview)