Hitman developer IO Interactive has been working on a James Bond video game. Project 007 will be an original Bond origin story, allowing players to step into the shoes of fabled spy and earn his double-O status. The game, which doesn’t yet have an official title or a release window, was first announced in 2020. Now, IO Interactive chief has provided an update on Project 007 and said that the studio hopes the Bond game could be the beginning of a trilogy.
Work on Project 007 Going ‘Amazingly Well’
In an interview with IGN, IO Interactive CEO and co-owner Hakan Abrak said development on Project 007 was going “amazingly well,” but stopped short of providing new details. “I don’t have an update today, but believe me, it’s itching here as well to be talking about it soon,” Abrak told IGN. “So we are following our plans. The production’s going amazingly well and we will soon be talking more about it. I know it was a little teaser, not a lot of information, but there’s a lot of cool stuff coming up.”
Akrak said that two decades of making Hitman games, where gamers get to fulfil their “agent fantasy,” had handed IO the expertise required to make a James Bond game. And while Project 007 is based on a popular IP, IO Interactive is working on a completely original story with a new James Bond, without utilising the likeness of any actor who has taken up the 007 mantle in the past.
“So it’s not a gamification of a movie. It’s completely beginning and becoming a story, hopefully for a big trilogy out there in the future,” Abrak said.
“And equally important and exciting, it’s a new Bond. It’s a Bond we built from ground up for gamers. It’s extremely exciting with all the tradition and all the history there is there together to work on this together with the family of creating a young Bond for gamers; a Bond that the gamers can call their own and grow with.”
A New Bond Story
IO Interactive is working with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Bond films producer Eon Productions as a developer and publisher on Project 007. Ian Fleming’s iconic British MI6 agent has had a storied history in the medium, with 1997’s GoldenEye widely considered as one of the most influential games ever made. Of late, however, Bond has struggled to maintain his footing in video games, even as Eon’s films have continued to do well. The last James Bond game was Activision’s 007 Legends, a Call-of-Duty style first-person shooter released in 2012.
IO, however, intends to start a new chapter for the martini-sipping spy when it comes to video games. “I don’t want to speak too big about it, but I just hope we’ll do a thing that will define James Bond in gaming for years to come,” Abrak said.
The Danish developer is not yet ready to fully reveal the game and provide details on its release window, Abrak said the studio would share more updates in “due time.”