While the overall future of the James Bond video game franchise is up in the air, the next 12 months have been laid out for the IO Interactive-published “007 First Light.”
With more than 2.7 million copies sold in the first week after its May 27 launch, the popularity of “007 First Light” — and a tease at the end of the game — led to widespread online conversations about the potential for future Bond games. However, comments from James Bond rights holder Amazon MGM Studios called into question whether IO Interactive would be part of those possible projects.
“We’re not speculating about that at all. We have a really good relationship with them, as they also said,” IO Interactive CEO and co-owner Hakan Abrak told Variety last week during Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles. “So we’re really happy about that relationship. And right now it’s 200% on ‘First Light,’ because for us, the start is only the beginning.”
Amazon GM of gaming Jeff Gattis said in an interview with Polygon June 3 that future Bond video games will be “done by MGM and, theoretically, by Amazon Game Studios,” the owners of the James Bond IP. That’s because the latest Bond game was put into development at IO Interactive before Amazon acquired the “full rights to this ‘First Light’ James Bond game,” Gattis said.
In a followup statement, an Amazon spokesperson said: “Amazon MGM holds the rights to any future James Bond video games but it’s still too early to discuss future projects. We have a great relationship with IO Interactive and are proud of what we’ve accomplished together on ‘007 First Light.’ Our partners at IO will reveal more about ‘007 First Light’ in the near future and we’re looking forward to sharing what’s next.”
Those plans were unveiled June 5 with the year-one content roadmap for “007 First Light,” including a post-launch support plan featuring new story missions, including one with Lenny Kravitz’s character Bawma, exotic locations and regular Tactical Simulation updates.
“Right now, we want to improve loading times, we want to drop these updates and content, so people feel also with the Tactical Simulation and the missions, that this is a living, breathing world that we’ve created that just keeps on expanding,” Abrak said. “It’ll be many, many, many, many more hours added to ‘First Light,’ and hopefully something that will grow with the community as we go along. So that’s 100% our focus right now, but I feel like we created something great and we’ll see what the future brings.”
See below for more from Variety‘s interview with Abrak about the future of “007 First Light” below.
There were many loose ends at the conclusion of “007 First Light” and the tease that “James Bond will return” — does that mean a sequel is in the works?
First of all, we are focusing on “First Light’ right now. So sequels and whatnot, theories about that, that’s like far away for us right now. We’re just focusing on “First Light,” and if anyone knows anything about us and the concept of single-player as a service that we kind of introduced with “Hitman,” you can expect some great content coming in “First Light.”
It’s always nice to end with a cliffhanger like that after hopefully a page turner for people playing this game that promises more content to come. We have the concept of Tactical Simulation where you can get all these different modes and challenges. You can take the Aston Martin Valhalla for a first spin outside to get some wind under your wings. There’s stuff like that but also more advanced challenges and missions and gadgets and upgrades. We’ll keep on supporting all that and that part is free. People know all the added value that we put in from “Hitman,” and we’ll continue the same style and build a community like that. Then there will be new missions as well, where it’s not just the Tactical Simulation, it’s actually where Bond he puts on the suit again. And this time he’s double 0. He’s a fully fledged double 0, and he’ll go on custom missions.
One new update will include the return of Bawma. What can you say about that? Does it involve his missing sister?
Some people when we announced him, they were like, “Oh, he’s a villain.” He’s kind of a villain, but he’s kind of also not. It’s this complex person. And we didn’t want to kill off all the baddies, and he’s not a through-and-through baddie. He has this thing against the ecosystem that he lives in, and what he has to do to survive. So Bawma is coming back. It’s gonna be very exciting to revisit some of these characters in different settings. And you’re bang on there, there’s probably something with the sister. So that’s the mission, and we have plans for other proper missions as well, down the line.
Gemma Chan’s character, Selina Tan, wasn’t in the game as much as I thought she would be. Is there more planned with her?
I think a lot of people appreciated and really like the Tactical Simulation. There’s really a lot of replayability in there. But there’s also people like, “Oh, but ‘Hitman’ had all these things.” But “Hitman” started at a different place as well, and evolved and expanded from there. So, Gemma Chan is certainly a franchise character there in “First Light,” and somebody who’s gonna be with you and evolve with you throughout Tactical Simulation. So, yes, you will see more of her, and she will be presenting some of the new stuff in Tactical Simulation, and maybe down the line she’ll be part of these missions as well.
Very few complaints here — but the loading screens were killing me and I know I’m not the only one. Are you working on that?
We are always optimizing. We’ve already patched the game several times and just keep on improving it. Loading times, next to other things, will be improved. Rest assured, there’s a very good team working on optimizing these things. I don’t like loading screens myself, so it’s completely fair.
By the end of the game, we know very little about Isola — except that she does choose to save Bond rather than leave him to die. Is she being set up to be a franchise-long “villain”?
That moment when we were doing that cinematic getting close to her with the camera to try to translate that contemplation she has. She obviously has got some emotional connection built with Bond, and she’s obviously a much more well-versed spy than Bond is. She’s ahead of him in many ways. But despite that, maybe it’s not bond only with a heart. And even though maybe it’s hidden a bit more behind, maybe there’s something there for her. And as you go along, we might explore that more in the future.
With a Bond story, the way we’ve approached that is you start with the villain because the villain is pivotal and important for every Bond story. And we wanted the first reveal trailer with 009, and the car chase, and whatnot, we wanted people just to focus on that red herring and save our bit more complex villains. Also villains like [Nicholas] Webb with this flawed logic. They think they are doing the right thing, but it’s a flawed logic to most of us. I think those are the things make up the most interesting ones.
Isola’s backstory, that’s one of those things that you could expect we would pursue and explore more. I think we left it in a great place. The thing Bond has been looking for is gone and now he’s got his title and maybe the work really starts now.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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