Nintendo Switch's GoldenEye 007 has exclusive online multiplayer

Nintendo's Direct earlier in the week revealed that GoldenEye 007 would be re-released on the Nintendo Switch, in addition to the Xbox. However, that's where the similarities end, as the Nintendo Switch version of the game will have online multiplayer as a console exclusive. 

GoldenEye 007 is often stated as one of the most influential first-person shooters ever, and has never previously been ported. Based on the James Bond film of the same name, it originally released on the Nintendo 64 in 1997, developed by a pre-Microsoft Rare. While console exclusivity is nothing new, it isn't every day that you hear of a game's port having an exclusive feature.  

The Switch version of GoldenEye will allow for up to four players to play against each other in competitive matches. Conversely, the version of the game coming to Xbox Game Pass and made by Rare will only have split-screen multiplayer. 

Microsoft's version of the game, according to a statement given to The Verge, is a "faithful recreation" of GoldenEye rather than the re-release coming to Nintendo's console. It currently has "no plans" for its GoldenEye to feature online multiplayer.

Nintendo's GoldenEye's exclusivity gets one over on Xbox 

That Nintendo has a semi-exclusive over Xbox in GoldenEye is interesting, given Xbox head Phil Spencer's recent outlook on the future of exclusives. 

In late August, Spencer believed that console exclusive games would begin to gradually go away, and would come to be a boon for the industry. Doing that, he said, would "reduce friction" for players, and "in the long run, that is good for this industry." 

Of course, as he says this, Xbox is currently in the midst of acquiring Activision Blizzard, which itself is coming not terribly long after Microsoft acquired Bethesda. The Activision Blizzard merge has had no shortage of concern around it, particularly from Sony.