Except for the fact that it was hit with several server issues upon launch, IO Interactive’s Hitman 3 was a massive success. With this third installment being the conclusion to “The World of Assassination Trilogy,” the developer previously confirmed that the series will be put on hold for a while as it works on its brand-new James Bond project.
While Project 007 won’t be released anytime soon, IO Interactive has already revealed a few details about it, including the fact that it’s going to be a standalone title. On November 19, 2020, IO Interactive revealed that it was working on a new 007 game. Fans have been gushing since then about how IO is the perfect developer to work on this kind of IP, especially given how it has done such a great job with the recent Hitman trilogy.
It goes without saying that IO Interactive is capable of designing games that revolve around stealth and discretion, so the video game community is beyond excited to see how the developer will put its own spin to the 007 franchise.
That being said, the upcoming title is still a long way away—in fact, the James Bond game is still in its early stages of development. IO Interactive previously said in an interview with TheGamer that it wants to expand its development team first before diving into Project 007.
Back in 2019, the Denmark-based studio established a new studio in Sweden. At the moment, there are only 200 employees who work under IO Interactive, but it’s looking to double its staff up to 400 just for the 007 game. Studio director Hakan Abrak said in the interview, “Today we [have] 200 employees and I expect that we will [have] over 400 employees over the next few years. So, there is no doubt that the Bond agreement means an insane amount to us.”
So far, the studio has done a good job at keeping the upcoming game as mysterious as possible, so we don’t really have any specifics about what the upcoming title will be all about. However, IO Interactive did share that Project 007 will be the studio’s original take on the popular spy.
In other words, the upcoming title won’t be based on any previous version of James Bond from past video games or movies. Not only that, IO Interactive will be utilizing a completely new actor to play the part.
While the studio mentioned that Project 007 will be a completely standalone game, the team is open to the idea of developing a trilogy for it—possibly similar to the way it handled Hitman’s World of Assassination trilogy.
Seeing as MGM and EON Productions are known to be incredibly protective of the rights to James Bond, it’s safe to assume that whatever IO Interactive pitched to them must have been impressive, to say the least.
IO Interactive has come so far since it departed from Square Enix back in 2017, after the first Hitman title from 2016 didn’t reach sales expectations. Now, with Square Enix of its back, IO Interactive has the freedom to work with whoever it wants to—and so far, the studio is really making a name for itself.
