James Bond’s Owners Were Not Looking For A New Bond Video Game Until Project 007

IO Interactive have revealed an interesting tidbit about the development of Project 007. As it turns out, James Bond’s intellectual property owners, Eon Productions, wasn’t really looking for a new Bond video game project until they came along.

PSU reports on an Edge Magazine interview with IO Interactive founders, Hakan Abrak and Christian Elverdam, about the topic.

Abrak brought up this topic himself, saying:

“Our impression was clearly that they were not looking for a game, and I think it’s fair that they might not have been super-happy with some of the later games.”

What won Eon over from IO Interactive’s pitch was their description of their project as a stealth focused spy game. As Elverdam put it:

“That helped us convince the Eon Group that there’s a sophistication in how we treat the agent fantasy.”

The James Bond license actually has quite the pedigree when it comes to video games. It is one of the most noteworthy licenses in the history of the medium, pushing forward the genres of shooters, as well as 3D action games.

While there were several action and text adventure James Bond games in the 1980s and early 1990s, GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64 put the license on the map. Gamers may not recognize the innovation in its blocky visuals, but it was noteworthy for pushing the FPS genre forward from simple room clearing games, like Doom and Quake, to more intricate levels. Different weapons and items gave Bond different abilities, that he could use in game. Players could choose to try or not to try to be stealthy. And then there was the console four player multiplayer, one of the greatest such modes on console at the time.  

GoldenEye 007 is also undisputably the high watermark for James Bond video games, but the license continued to ride its success and made it relevant for two more decades. The license changed hands to EA, who produced some average and above average Bond games, that predated and were competitive with military shooters like Call of Duty.

In the modern era, it switched hands again to Activision, who made Bond games more sporadically and with visibly less success. Eon Productions was likely frustrated with their last game, 007 Legends, which landed so badly it led to the closure of its developer, Eurocom.

If we were to be honest, if GoldenEye 007 was a highlight for the video game industry, video games are really only a sliver of the James Bond license’s merchandising empire. As far back as 1962’s Dr. No, Eon was already licensing Bond with tie-ins to tobacco, clothing, car companies and others. Of course, their extensive film franchise is one of the most successful of all time, spawning hundreds of imitators.

So it’s understandable that Eon was disregarding the potential money they could be making with more Bond video games. Their reputation was more important. But this was really not so much about game companies being too inept to handle licenses, as it is about finding the right angle, such as the right genre or studio, to make these games.

So it looks like Io Interactive have proposed a new Bond game that meets Eon’s expectations. Here’s hoping that it can meet our expectations, too