The makers of Hitman are making the newly-revealed 007 First Light. It’s not the first time a videogame has filled a gap between Bond films.
There’s still no clue as to who will play James Bond in the next film outing, but his digital counterpart has a new face. As unveiled during Sony’s State Of Play online event yesterday, 007 First Light is a forthcoming videogame that will introduce a 26 year-old Bond who’s still at the start of his super spy career.
The game’s in development at IO Interactive, and the overlap between the studio’s skills and the 007 franchise is so logical that, in retrospect, it’s surprising it hasn’t happened sooner. The Swedish team is most famous for Hitman – a series of stealth sandboxes in which the player’s presented with a mission – which usually involves murdering someone – and then left to figure out how to complete the objective on their own. You’re at a grand prix race. Want to put on a big, rubbery mascot costume so you can get into the pit lane to murder a mechanic? You can do that.
Looking at 007 First Light’s trailer (see below), it looks like we’re in for a clean melding of classic Bond iconography – gadgets, Aston Martins, pithy one-liners – and the kind of sneaky scenarios that were part and parcel of the Hitman games. What looks like in-game footage shows some distraction techniques and silent yet deadly takedowns worthy of Hitman's ice-cold protagonist, Agent 47.
The game’s due for release in 2026, which could make it the perfect stop-gap for Bond fans gloomily wondering when the next movie is likely to show up. Four years has already passed since Daniel Craig’s swansong as 007, No Time To Die; since then, the film franchise has been at a bit of an impasse. Bond is now under full creative control of Amazon MGM, with the company having made a deal with veteran producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson in February this year.
The franchise’s new producers, Amy Pascal and David Heyman, are said to be in the early stages of putting a new 007 film together, but with no actor announced as Daniel Craig’s successor as yet, we’re unlikely to see the spy in cinemas until at least 2027.
In a curious case of history repeating itself, this isn’t the first time a videogame has helped break up the gap between James Bond entries. A variety of issues – including money worries at MGM – led to a four-year break between Quantum Of Solace (2008) and 2012’s Skyfall, the latter arriving in time for the 50th anniversary of the franchise-starting Dr No.
Slap bang in the middle of those film releases came the action videogame, James Bond 007: Bloodstone. Between them, Bond production company EON and publisher Activision poured an incredible amount of resources into the game; it featured the voices and likenesses of Daniel Craig and Judi Dench, while pop star Joss Stone was hired to provide the opening song.
At a glitzy announcement event, it was even announced that Bloodstone would be considered canon, with the game continuing Bond’s adventures where Quantum Of Solace left off. The resulting game, developed by British studio Bizarre Creations, was a perfectly solid third-person action adventure, with shooting goons in exotic locales joined by some enjoyable racing sequences (the studio’s real forte).
Regrettably, the big marketing push didn’t lead to huge sales; most regrettably, Bizarre was shut down a few months after its release.
This isn’t to say that 007 First Light will share Bloodstone's unwarranted fate, of course: IO’s reputation alone should ensure that Bond’s latest interactive outing will have an attentive audience. Nor does it have the weight of being a continuation of a movie bearing down on it; the fresh-faced character in the game bears no resemblance to earlier Bond actors, though there are theories going around that he may be played by Dexter: New Blood star Patrick Gibson.
As his cinematic twin remains trapped in the corridors of corporate offices, wondering when he’s going to escape, IO’s take on Bond is off on his own globe-spanning adventure, with all the laser watches, alpine car chases and silenced pistol-shooting it requires.
007 First Light is due for release in 2026.
