Remember Project 007, the mysterious James Bond game in development by Hitman developers? After 4 years of hiding from the spotlight, IO Interactive has finally broken its silence. In an IGN interview, CEO Hakan Abrak is confident that the company’s ’20-plus years’ of developing the stealth franchise has prepared it for this project. Project 007 development is moving along ‘amazingly well,’ featuring ‘a lot of cool stuff’ including a young James Bond and a chance of a trilogy.
While all James Bond games have been adaptations of the movies, Abrak shared that Project 007 will instead feature an original story and not another rehash. “[…] We actually got to do an original story. So it’s not a gamification of a movie,” he explains.
As work progresses on a new chapter in the iconic spy’s life, IO Interactive envisions Project 007 story leading to a ‘big trilogy’ down the line. “It’s completely beginning and becoming a story, hopefully for a big trilogy out there in the future.”
Abrak then added that the game will feature a ‘young James Bond’ origin story and alluding to a custom character option. Where players can have a Bond of ‘their own.’
“It’s a Bond we built from [the] ground up for gamers. It’s extremely exciting with all the tradition and all the history there is to work on this together with the family of creating a young Bond for gamers; a Bond that the gamers can call their own and grow with.”
It’s been nearly 15 years since the last James Bond game, and Abrak is fully aware of the expectations that come from the lasting impact of GoldenEye. Nevertheless, IO Interactive is working hard to create a game that could define Bond for a new generation of players.
“[…] I just hope we’ll do a thing that will define James Bond in gaming for years to come. And that is not only one game, but that we create a universe for gamers to own for many years to come that we can grow with that next to the Bond on the movies,” added the Denmark-based company CEO.
Abrak concluded by saying that while there isn’t an actual update just yet, IO Interactive will be sharing more in ‘due time.’ With all this buildup, fans are naturally itching for more Project 007 details. Unfortunately, we still have to wait a bit longer before we get our license to thrill.
