Quote
Gates: So Reggie, uh, we were hoping to release Goldeneye on Arcade and we know you have the publishing ri-
bwahaha

Rare was able to release Diddy Kong Racing DS, so I can't see anything stopping Goldeneye 007 being released on the VC. At least, I can't see why Microsoft would let one Rare game go to Nintendo and not another one.
Personally, I only had a problem with Perfect Dark's framerate during heavy multiplayer battles.
I've already clocked over 1000 hours on Perfect Dark's multiplayer. The idea of it online fills me with joy, indeed.
Quote
Nintendo was either really smart in judging what Rare had in the pipeline or insanely lucky that it worked out this way.
They were smart. Look at StarFox Adventures; a clear sign Rare were losing their touch. Their last few GBA games were also not too great. Nothing like their old stuff on SNES, Gameboy and N64 (maybe NES, too? I'm not sure I've ever played a NES game made by Rare...).
Retro Studios is the new Rare, in my opinion. I just hope they'll make something other than a Metroid game. That would be interesting to see/play.