I/O Interactive dropped some very little breadcrumbs about its upcoming James Bond related project, Project 007.
In a new interview with GameReactor, Senior Technical Executive Producer Cris Vega shared this:
“007 is under development, it’s looking very cool. It’s going to tell the story of the first Bond and how he becomes the secret agent that he is, but that’s what we can comment on.”
The I/O Interactive staff on hand were not privy to story or other details anyway. So, even if they wanted to, they wouldn’t know anything about the narrative, release window, projected platforms, or any other details like that.
Project 007 was revealed all the way back in November of 2020, but that may have been at the very start of development, or just before it. While it’s possible for games to release after three years of development, it’s more likely that IOI is still in the middle of polishing the game up, and far from ready to reveal or release it.
The scant other details we know are also not much to go on, but at least there is something. We know that IOI has hired an original actor of their own to voice James, so don’t expect Daniel Craig or a Sean Connery sound-a-like to be hitting our small screens.
We also know that they started ramping up hiring for the game around January of 2021. That does, at least, tell us that the studio is well in the middle of development at this point, whatever challenges the pandemic threw at the studio that affected that.
We also know from November of last year that IOI went looking for a monetization designer. For what it’s worth, that job listing did not have a game title attached to it. It could be for Project 007, but it could also be just as likely for Project Fantasy, or an unannounced I/O Interactive title.
In terms of the venerable James Bond franchise itself, this will be the newest 007 game since 2012’s 007 Legends. While planned as a dream game with Bond facing off against his most legendary foes, poor game design on what seems to be a low budget project led to publisher Activision moving away from licensed games, and EON and Broccoli themselves walking away from James Bond video games for what has now been over a decade.
Expectations are definitely high for this next James Bond game, so it only stands to reason that IOI is taking their time with it. Post Square Enix divestiture and post Embracer acquisition, IOI has a lot to prove with this title as well.
