New James Bond game green-lit - Report

Yesterday Bond fans eager for the next film installment got what they wanted when it was reported that Bond 23--the tentative title of the newest film--would debut late next year. Sam Mendes will direct, Daniel Craig will be back as Bond, and the flick was given a November 9, 2012, premiere date. However, the film isn't the only Bond property that received the go-ahead.

Hollywood blog Deadline also reported that another James Bond video game has been green-lit. The report did not state if the title will follow the narrative of the film, which development studio will handle work on it, or when it will be released.

One potential developer for the new Bond game is Wisconsin-based Raven Software. Early last month the development house was rumored to be developing a stealth action Bond title, which it reportedly resumed work on following a federal bankruptcy court's decision that allowed the newest film to begin preproduction. It's also possible that the "new" Bond game and the stealth action game are one and the same.

Virtual James Bond had a busy 2010, as James Bond 007: Blood Stone was released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, and GoldenEye 007 landed exclusively on the Wii in the latter half of the year. Blood Stone was not tied to a James Bond film narratively (though it did feature the likeness of Daniel Craig), and GoldenEye featured some of the same environments and characters found in the 1997 Nintendo 64 game based on the Pierce Brosnan-led movie of the same name.

The most recent Bond game based on a film was 2008's Quantum of Solace, which was developed by Treyarch, the team also responsible for November's megahit Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Bond 23 was originally pegged to be released in 2011, but financial troubles at MGM Studios made that date impossible to reach. Little is known of the film's plot, though it is believed that the flick will pick up directly where Bond's latest adventure, Quantum of Solace, left off.