007: First Light developer IO Interactive has stated they want Patrick Gibson’s Bond to be around for a ‘long time’ – emphasising this is ‘the beginning’ for their younger take on the British spy.
As IO Interactive gets closer to release of the first James Bond video game since 2012, players will soon get their hands on the studio’s modern take on the gentleman spy. Portrayed by Dexter: Original Sin actor Patrick Gibson, the game also marks the first true cinematic game with an original Bond.
Speaking to the Radio Times, First Light missions and audio director Dominic Vega praised Gibson’s portrayal as the iconic spy. said “[He] filled the shoes of James Bond spectacularly”, they said, adding, that “Patrick’s confidence and his poise are very Bond-like, even just in his own day-to-day”.
While Vega didn’t confirm a sequel was in the works, or even planned, he revealed the team “want to see Patrick as Bond for a long time”, but ultimately this comes down to how the audience reacts to the game.
While a post-launch plan has not been confirmed for 007: First Light, it’s been suggested that the game could see a similar DLC release to IO’s own Hitman: World of Assassination with teases of more missions for fans to play.
He added: “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. It is the beginning – it’s up to the audience to decide how that goes, but yeah, more to be discovered.”
First Light blends IO Interactive’s trademark Hitman-style sandbox gameplay with the more linear approach of action-orientated, story-driven titles. Set pieces and a focus on gunplay help make the First Light feel completely different to Agent 47’s outings, to help it feel as though gamers are playing a film. There’s even a new bluffing system, which Bond can use if he’s caught sneaking around areas that are off limits.
IO’s attention-to-detail can also be found in the game’s soundtrack, with Lana del Rey providing the game’s main theme, and a sweeping orchestral soundtrack complementing the in-game action. “We want the sound of the game to be very handcrafted,” Vega said in a recent dev log. “We don’t want it to feel artificial. We don’t want it to feel hyper-processed. We want to feel like, ‘I’m playing a film’”.
Unlike most stories in the series, IO Interactive’s Bond is at the start of his spy career and is more naive than the established, suave super-spy many have come to expect from the series. “We really see this as a new chapter of Bond in gaming,” said senior producer Theuns Smit earlier this year.
“When you meet him, he’s not yet at MI6. He’s not yet the cold, hardened, battle-scarred Bond you may have seen previously. He still has a bit of naivety, eyes wide open, as he’s about to enter this world of espionage. He doesn’t have his 00 status yet, so partly he has that purpose that he’s driving for… to discover who he is meant to be”.
007: First Light lands on May 27, 2026 on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. The game’s Nintendo Switch 2 port has been delayed to an undisclosed later date.
