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IO Interactive’s Upcoming James Bond Game Will Introduce a New 007
By Shubhendu Vatsa - News Published:
IO Interactive co-owners Christian Elverdam and Hakan Abrak have revealed some juicy details about the developer’s top-secret James Bond game. Dubbed ‘Project 007,’ the upcoming AAA title was first announced some two years back, however, almost no new information had surfaced since then. During a recent interview with Eurogamer, IO Interactive’s co-owners Elverdam and Abrak, famous for crafting the Hitman franchise, cleared the air, dropping some new details on their upcoming Bond game, how they approached the idea and the iconic character itself.
RELATED: Heads Up, ‘GoldenEye 007’ is Now Available on Xbox and Nintendo Switch
‘Goldeneye 007’ | Image: Nintendo
While the duo didn’t communicate much, they did touch on some interesting points, most notably their desire to create a Bond from the ground up. For reference, IO Interactive’s classic Hitman game franchise has been a massive success but the film adaptations have failed to impress, prompting Elverdam to reveal he faced hesitation from Bond producers Eon. Even more surprisingly, the co-owner went on to explain that work on the new game kicked off a long time ago, with the idea dating back as far as 2013.
“It’s odd because from my perspective, I’ve been used to defending Agent 47; people want to do things with our franchise and you feel that stewardship. And obviously for them (E0n), that is their role in the Bond franchise. So for us, it’s been about finding a mutual understanding of ‘what is James Bond about?”
“So in 2013 we’re talking about this World of Assassination pitch, this idea that we wanted to elevate Hitman, and I recall, in some of the talks I had with the studio, I thought it was a little odd at that point in time that you didn’t have any strong agent fantasies and this celebration of the spy genre.”
Daniel Craig in ‘No Time to Die’ (2021) | Image: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Elverdam then went on to state some previously known facts, mentioning that they would be doing an origin story for Bond, which will follow a whole new version of the beloved British spy.
“And as we’ve talked about,” he added, “we’re doing an origin (story), because one thing, to show the trust they’ve instilled in us, is that we’re allowed to build a James Bond for the game, which I think is a profound homage to where our industry is and where the medium is, in the sense that yes, it’s time to have a James Bond character who was not a movie character but who’s comfortably just his own game character.”
Sean Connery’s Bond | Image: MGM
Over the years, Bond has been resurrected and repackaged for new audiences and eras, something which motivated Elverdam and IO to pursue the license for their own Bond game. “I also think that gave a belief that perhaps this could be a thing, that you could reinvent Bond for a games medium,” Elverdam revealed.
With their new game, the team at IO hopes to come up with “something that can stand next to the TV and the movies and whatnot,” thus starting a whole new era for our spy. “It’s something that can stand next to the TV and the movies and whatnot. This can be something where the gamers say, ‘Well it’s not just a gamification of a video (and) did they convey Daniel Craig well or not? I don’t know, let me look at the pixels,'” Hakan Abrak said.
With Project 007, IO appears in well-positioned to change the way we think of James Bond in video games. Naturally, the pressure of nailing the character, setting, plot and mechanics is quite immense. Even though there’ll still be some time before we get a good loom at what IO has in store, 007’s new era in gaming sounds plenty promising.
