IO Interactive says 007 First Light was 'always' supposed to be an origin story 'We wanted to take that risk and introduce a fresh Bond for the gamers'

Date:
Thu, 18 Jun 2026 16:56:32 +0000

Description:
IO Interactive has confirmed that 007 First Light was always intended to be a young James Bond story, and it collaborated frequently with Amazon MGM Studios.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter 007 First Light game director Hakan Abrak says the game was always planned as an origin story He says the team pitched to MGM and had ideas for a young Bond story that was a "non-negotiable" He adds that there were weekly feedback meetings, but IO was always in charge of the story IO Interactive has confirmed that 007 First Light was always intended to be a young James Bond story, and it collaborated frequently with the franchise owner, Amazon MGM Studios.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at an event adjacent to Summer Game
Fest 2026 , game director Hakan Abrak discussed the conceptual phase of the game and confirmed that First Light was "always supposed to be a young Bond story," and the pitching process to MGM and Bond IP co-owners Barbara
Broccolo and Michael G. Wilson was "massively intimidating." Abrak recalled the pitching process being in a room decked in old books from James Bond novelist Ian Fleming, a grand piano, and "the atmosphere of history was so thick you could just cut through it." Latest Videos From Watch full video here:

When he and other IO team members went in to pitch, he remembered the MGM heads came into the room and were "completely silent" before telling the developers to go ahead and pitch.

"We pitch the story, we pitch our approach, and why this would be different from other Bond games," Abrak said. "[They were] very silent, and then
Barbara just says, after a while, stonefaced just says, 'I quite like it,'
and then the room just erupted right after; [they said] 'These guys are so cool, like they didn't really get it, I was like keeping my cool and whatnot, but deep inside I was like 'phew' that was something." You may like 007 First Light devs say post-launch content is in IO Interactive's 'DNA' and is now something players are 'starting to expect' 'We want the players to come
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The game director did note that he thought IO's initial pitch was "a bit ballsy" and the team had lots of ideas of introducing aspects from Ian
Fleming novels, like James Bond's scar, and create a young coming-of-age
story "where it's not like he has figured everything out."

Abrak said the team didn't want to recreate a "perfect digital version of Daniel Craig, I love Daniel Craig, but it just wanted to make something that feels original." Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

"More importantly, what we also told them was that we want to go for the gamers, we want to create a Bond for the gamers," he said, explaining that some young gamers might not have a familiar attachment to Bond like the older generation.

"We [wanted] to take that risk and introduce a fresh Bond for the gamers," he said, "We want to make a Bond for the gamers, not the gamification of a
movie. It's difficult [to go there] with non-negotiables, but this was a non-negotiable for us. If we did this, we needed to get this freedom for this approach. So, this was very, very clear from the get-go."

While IO had creative control over the story, Abrak said there was input from MGM, as well as several sessions of casting before Paddy Gibson was cast as Bond. The team also had weekly meetings with Eon Productions, the British
film production company that primarily produced the Bond film series. What to read next 007 First Lights Bond gets creative in ways that would make Agent
47 smile We now own the IP: 007 First Light sequels could face new villain as Amazon Gaming says it might publish potential Bond games I havent played a Bond game since Goldeneye on the N64 but 007 First Light could finally
change that

"Although the story was written by IO and delivered by us, we got a lot of feedback," he said. "I think we had some affinity, and we had something to start with, like with the Danish dark humor, dry humor, but getting the British humor right, there [was] still some way to go.

"It's been massively helpful, and we're really into it, and I think for the younger generation of Eon creators that we had meetings with, and the artwork from the movies, which [was] attached to it as well, it was very, very exciting for them to get to do, because they were actually making a new one [Bond] from the ground up.

"It was a collaboration; they were very much involved, but it was always IO, doing the story, doing the characters and things, and then getting feedback and working closely."

007 First Light is out now on PlayStation 5 , Xbox Series X and Series S , and PC. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is slated to launch sometime this year. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the
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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/gaming/io-interactive-says-007-first-light-was-alway s-supposed-to-be-an-origin-story-we-wanted-to-take-that-risk-and-introduce-a-f resh-bond-for-the-gamers


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