As IO Interactive’s first non-Hitman game since 2010’s Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days, 007 First Light has been a major investment for the studio. Alongside crafting an expensive original soundtrack with its own Lana Del Ray theme song, the new James Bond game has required significant investment from the studio.
Alongside the obvious graphical improvements over IO”s Hitman game, First Light features brand-new destruction physics, high-speed driving sections, and full motion-captured cutscenes rendered in-engine. Most of this is new, and required the studio to invest heavily in upgrading its production pipeline, which has made it the studio’s most expensive game yet.
Speaking to The Game Business, IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak revealed that 007 First Light is the studio’s most expensive game so far. While Abrak didn’t reveal an exact budget for the game, the studio has spent more than $100 million, considering the budgets of their prior Hitman games.
“With our engine and efficiency… it is a very expensive project for us,” the CEO said. “It’s our most expensive. And I’m not going to talk about exact numbers now. But I’m looking forward to talking about it, because these games can be done for half of what you hear about out there.”
Abrak explained that the investment from the studio for the title isn’t just about recouping costs on day one. Instead, IO is hoping to “build a community” around the James Bond game. If successful, 007 First Light could be a platform in the same vein as the studio’s Hitman: World of Assassination with frequent post-launch releases.
“When it comes to building something quality and sustainable, I think we have proven that our approach, and concept, with our engine, and with the way our talent works, that not only do we deliver AAA single player games, but we build a community,” Abrak said.
“It’s about bang for the buck,” he continued. “It’s about who is your team? It’s about what are you producing? What is your basis? And it’s not about, if you haven’t recouped in the first three months, you are doomed, or it’s over. Or if you did [recoup], then it’s onto the next one. That’s not how we think. We really think of this as a journey. It doesn’t matter if it’s multiplayer or single player.”
Abrak explains that, after the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and others, there’s a big “thing in the industry right now around the success of the AA”. While the studio has largely followed that trend of smaller-scale development and budgets, 007 First Light is a monumental investment for the studio, and they’re adamant it will succeed.
While IO is keen to return to the Hitman series in the future, with fresh innovations in mind, the studio also wants to work on additional Bond titles. “As a studio, we have a long history of expanding things and remixing, so it’s certainly not the last we’ve seen of Patrick [Gibson as Bond],” missions and audio director Dominic Vega said. “It is the beginning – it’s up to the audience to decide how that goes, but yeah, more to be discovered.”
007 First Light is currently scheduled to launch on May 27, 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC. The game’s Nintendo Switch 2 port has been delayed with Abrak explaining it needs “more time” in the oven. With that said, the game should launch on Switch 2 by the end of the Summer.
