Project 007 has Hitman DNA, expected to be a trilogy of games, and is progressing well

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Project 007 Is a ‘Young Bond for Gamers’ and Hopefully the Start of a New Trilogy, IO Interactive Boss Says

CEO Hakan Abrak teases IO Interactive’s shadowy James Bond game as a “young Bond for gamers.”

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By Kat Bailey

Posted: Oct 16, 2024 9:00 am

IO Interactive boss Hakan Abrak has shared some fresh details about Project 007, the shadowy new project from the developers of Hitman that will feature a “James Bond origin story,” saying that production is going “amazingly well” and that the studio will have more details to share soon.

Speaking with IGN in a wide-ranging interview as part of today’s MindsEye publishing deal, Abrak said that Project 007 is being fully developed, published, and funded by IO Interactive, and that there’s “a lot of cool stuff coming up.”

“We absolutely feel like 20 plus years of training for the agent fantasy, creating an agent that travels the world and globetrotting whatnot, has given us some know-how on that. But obviously James Bond is a different IP. It’s a huge IP. It’s not our IP. It’s actually the first IP that is not our original IP from ground up,” Abrak says.

“But what’s exciting about that project is that we actually got to do an original story. So it’s not a gamification of a movie. It’s completely beginning and becoming a story, hopefully for a big trilogy out there in the future. And equally important and exciting, it’s a new Bond. It’s a Bond we built from ground up for gamers. It’s extremely exciting with all the tradition and all the history there is there together 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 completely beginning and becoming a story, hopefully for a big trilogy out there in the future".

IO Interactive has become famous for stealth games thanks to its work with the Hitman series, which is notable for its open-ended design and wry sense of humor (you get to assassinate Sean Bean!). The owners of the James Bond IP were apparently leery of another game based on 007 given the franchise’s mixed track record outside of Goldeneye, but IO Interactive was able to convince them otherwise. At the moment, the Hitman franchise is on hiatus while the studio focuses on other projects, but IO Interactive did release a compilation of the Hitman trilogy called World of Assassination in 2023.

Since IO Interactive announced that it was working on a Bond game back in 2020, MGM has released No Time to Die, which was a generally well-received sendoff to Daniel Craig. Craig’s departure means that the Bond franchise is currently between Bonds, but Abrak says that the license is still very powerful.

“When we look at the movies, it’s one of the top three IPs out there, it’s extremely powerful also because it’s been, what, almost 15 years since the last game. So it’s been a long time. It definitely is something that is not overexposed in gaming. We actually see that as a strength that we can do something very special and hopefully… There’s a lot of people out there who think about GoldenEye as the classic. And I love that game as well myself,” Abrak says.

“I don’t want to speak too big about it, but 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.”

Abrak praised the producers of the films for being able to “reinvent Bond throughout the years and keep that IP relevant” and said that IO Interactive have “big, big shoes to fill.” Like the legendary secret agent himself, a Project 007 reveal remains frustratingly elusive, but Abrak says that IO Interactive will share more in “due time.”

“I don’t have an update today, but believe me, it’s itching here as well to be talking about it soon. So we are following our plans. The production’s going amazingly well and we will soon be talking more about it. I know it was a little teaser, not a lot of information, but there’s a lot of cool stuff coming up,” Abrak says. “We are also very excited and when we are ready with that, we’ll be opening up.”

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat.

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Ok, so, a few things that this talk of a goal for a trilogy indicates for me. 1) I think I may stop referring to the upcoming game as Project 007 (especially since it’s been said that that is just a placeholder name anyway) and refer to the property’s overall duration in IOI’s possession as Project 007, in the same way the last 8 years of Hitman, despite being several different installments, is collectively referred to as the WoA era.

And 2) if a trilogy of games for the Bond property is the goal, this all but confirms for me that we are gonna see some manner of 007/Hitman crossover, whether that be a background cameo where we see 47 working as a bartender when Bond orders his martini, a multiplayer mode or some kind of “joke” mode where players can pit Bond and 47 against each other, or a unlockable skin where bond will wear 47’s signature suit, wield his Silverballer, and perhaps even have a fake barcode tattoo applied to the back of his neck. If they are gonna go this hard in on the property, there is no way they are gonna pass up the opportunity to have some kind of either explicit or tongue-in-cheek crossover of the two in some capacity.

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So it sounds to me like IO are hoping to do the same thing with Project 007 as they did with Hitman World of Assassination, with each entry having the same basic gameplay but with steady improvements. I’m not sure they’ll be as linked as the WoA trilogy with each entry including all the major stuff from the previous ones, but their talk of wanting to create a universe for many years leads me to think it’ll probably be a similar sort of live service type game. Hopefully they don’t do something like Elusive Targets in it, and since they say they want it to be “for gamers to own” hopefully that means it has a full offline mode!

Though the one downside is if they’re planning on a trilogy of 007 games, that means that the next Hitman entry is even further out, though I’m sure the Bond games will help scratch that itch

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Trilogy… uh oh, Hitman 4 even further away…

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Yes, pretty much the new Hitman games give that away.
I see it as them showing their capabilities in creating a Bond mood in Hitman and that’s how they got the IP.
Remember how some of us were upset about the first HITMAN feeling way too… “God save the queen” vibe. Even the music was on spot with a Bond theme not to mention the clothes style which I do follow some of them in real life.

So while I wanted agent 47 in a more brutal environment like the old games I do understand what they did and it turned out very well in end :slightly_smiling_face:
Leaving my 2 cents, if 007 is the same tone it’s going to be a masterpiece.
Cheers to that :beers:

At least 8 years away. Wanna bet?

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I wonder if there will be a crossover with the ICA being mentioned as the MI6 play a small role in the Showstopper lore.

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Maybe even we will briefly see 47 as a NPC in a level ? :thinking:

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I don’t think so, you surely can just kill random NPCs and killing 47 should probably not be possible. And I don’t see a lore reason for that like it is with Diana in Mendoza.

I would actually like it more if we could hunt down hints of 47 as he surely is too elusive to appear anywhere. :smiley:

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Everything about it, suggests that Project 007 is Hitman World of Assassination adjacent / redux:

(1) Project 007 is set to be a novel trilogy just like Hitman WOA.
(2) It is a completely new James Bond narrative written by IOI themselves.
(3) There is a de-emphasis of combat, suggesting a lot of stealth like Hitman WOA.
(4) It will likely be a live service game like Hitman WOA on a Microsoft Azure platform with paid DLC content involving targets which are real characters from movies or real people (e.g. like The Drop, The Disruptor, Sean Bean)
(5) It sounds like the fundamentals of Project 007 is mostly complete now with a likely announcement soon of progress, ~4 yrs after IOI established the rights to create Project 007 from the MGM/Broccoli family. If Project 007 was dramatically different from Hitman WOA, then Project 007 may not have progressed so quickly.
(6) CEO, H. Abrak speaks of Project 007 as having Hitman DNA, meaning that Project 007 is likely not a dramatic departure from Hitman WOA.

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I think we’re thinking of the same thing. I didn’t mean interact with him or be able to witness him take out a target. I meant like as a level starts the player (Bond) walks into the lobby of a hotel and if you notice you see 47 walk out and jump into a waiting car and he’s off the map or maybe across the room you see him duck out an employee only door and he’s gone. Maybe Bond thinks he recognizes him, but better if Bond doesn’t notice at all bc how would he know what 47 looks like? Then later on in the level you learn there was a murder or an accidental death of some big shot.

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A very important difference should be about women in the game. 47 and 007 are at opposite poles. It will be very interesting to see how the gameplay will be in this regard.

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Yes! James Bond would have reacted much differently when Mei Ling kissed him.

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Unless it’s during a cutscene, cue speedrunners figuring out some way to shoot the 47 NPC in the first second of the mission.

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Sex interaction God of War style :joy:

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But during this new era it would be considered sexist or things like that.

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