James Bond: 007 First Light is "like a hand fitting into a glove" after making Hitman, explains developer

If there was ever a studio to make a James Bond game, it would be Hitman developer IO Interactive – a sentiment that 007 First Light's developers themselves seem to agree with.

First announced in 2020 as 'Project 007', the game was officially unveiled in June 2025, marking the first officially licensed Bond title since 2012's best-forgotten 007 Legends, and hopefully a nice way to wait for the next Bond film.

Placing Bond in the hands of players for an espionage-driven action-adventure game, which if you've played even five minutes of a Hitman game, will sound eminently familiar.

In an interview with Radio Times Gaming (which is also available as podcast), 007 First Light senior producer Theuns Smit explained what it means to work on the game, and how well-suited IO Interactive is to be the studio to do it.

"At IO Interactive, as you know, we have over 25 years of agent fantasy experience, so there's a lot that we've done in the past in that sense that we can draw from.

"But when it comes to James Bond, I mean, he's like the original spy, and for us, it just felt like a hand fitting into a glove being able to work on this and bring our style into it."

On comparisons to Hitman, Smit later added that while IOI's previous experience will certainly influence 007 First Light, the game offer them a chance to branch out.

"[Making 007 First Light] is a fun challenge, so to speak, because we were very excited to do something new, something different.

"So even though there are certain things that, from our expertise, we get to rely on and bring in a little bit, we're still giving you that creative approach to tackle objectives the way you want to."

He later added that, "Agent 47 was more like a chaos agent. That's not what Bond is. That's not true to his nature. That's not true to the IP.

"We wanted to treat that with respect as well. So, there will be times where you find yourself with enemy presence coming at you with more full force, and as they are escalating the situation, that is the moment where you reciprocate and you basically unlock your licence to kill so that you can deal with the situation and, you know, get out alive."

007 First Light releases on 27th May 2026 for PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2.

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