Discuss all details and news about Project 007 here!
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https://www.thegamer.com/io-interactive-second-studio-james-bond/
- this will be an all new digital Bond that is not inspired by a Bond actor
- original story that could be turned into a trilogy
- IO has 200 employees right now and expects that number to grow to over 400
These are from a Danish article that includes other details such as meeting with EON Productions (Barbara Broccoli didn’t think previous Bond games were “worthy enough” and violent “for the sake of violence”; IOI’s pitch though convinced her)
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What is meant with a second studio? A second Swedish studio? Or did the author mistake the Malmö studio to not exist yet?
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i think they made a mistake. IOI opening another studio aside from the Malmo one would be crazy
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The Malmö and Copenhagen offices are basically the same. You only have to go across ONE bridge to get between them 
Very into this bit though, hopefully means IO isn’t too constrained in other parts of their story then
I guess we’ll wait and see. Not sure how excited I am at the prospect of IO spending a whole trilogies worth of time on something that isn’t their IP, but if 007 is a fantastic game I guess I won’t complain 
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yeah… i feel like for a Bond game i would just want a singular, perfect piece
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In my opinion this isn’t fully correct, the last report in December 2020 was 143. 57 employees in one month seems excessive to me. When I had noticed that IO counts 180 people a few months ago because the number was mentioned on IOI.dk, they removed this the next day because I posted the number here.
And even if this is true, a 400 employees bump is even less likely, it’s more than studios behind a big publisher like Insomniac Games or Rocksteady.
And even if all this is true, it is a risk about management, because more people does not result in more efficiency for a game company, you need trusted and experienced people and aquire new heads in a slow pace unlike CDPR (400->1000+ people in 2 years = disaster).
EDIT: but good for them if they can reach that. I hope this game will be a success.
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Ok, forget what I said. It’s confirmed by the danish article below. I talk too fast sometimes 
The meeting with the matriarch
If you have a desire to make any James Bond product, you need to convince the owners of the license - the film company MGM and the British production company EON Productions - that it is a good idea.
Behind EON Productions is the Broccoli family, who hold an iron grip on everything that is about the British agent. This applies to film scripts, casting for the various roles, and who will make James Bond in a game universe.
The Broccoli family’s power over the Bond universe is due to the fact that filmmaker Albert R. Broccoli and his partner Harry Saltzman in 1961 bought the film rights to James Bond from Ian Fleming, author of the books on the British intelligence agent.
Today, it is his daughter, 60-year-old Barbara Broccoli, who, along with her stepbrother, Michael G. Wilson, has the ultimate responsibility for the Bond franchise through EON Productions.
The meeting with Barbara Broccoli - the matriarch - and the rest of EON Productions, was the culmination of almost two years of work and preparation for Hakan Abrak and his team, and it was an awe-inspiring experience, he admits.
The history and power are unmistakable when you arrive at the office building, which is a large Victorian building next to Hyde Park in London .
And when you are greeted by Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson and the younger generation of the Broccoli family, who will one day take over the management, it required a few deep breaths, says Hakan Abrak.
He and the rest of the team knew that the final decision on whether or not the James Bond universe should become a gaming franchise at all lay in the hands of Barbara Broccoli.
With good Scandinavian charm you go a long way. We came up with a down-to-earth attitude, and that’s far from the big American arm movements that EON Productions is probably used to. That, I think, went straight into them, says Hakan Abrak.
Grows to double size
The successful meeting in London was a major turning point for IO Interactive in terms of obtaining the rights to the James Bond license. Because once the Broccoli family was convinced, it was a formality to also convince the film company MGM.
In addition to making a good presentation of their vision for James Bond as a gaming franchise, Hakan Abrak also believes that their Scandinavian being helped bring the deal home.
The agreement with MGM and EON Productions was announced by IO Interactive at the end of November last year, and it is an agreement that will be of great importance to the Danish gaming company in the coming year.
Today we are 200 employees and I expect that we will be over 400 employees over the next few years. So there is no doubt that the Bond agreement means an insane amount to us.
IO Interactive’s success - also with the Hitman franchise - has, among other things, meant that in 2019 it opened its first game studio outside Denmark’s borders, namely in Malmö, Sweden.
Here, a large part of the future employees will sit and develop the completely new Bond universe, just as you will also have to work with it in the office in Copenhagen.
We are very keen to make a game of very high quality, which young people all over the world fall in love with. And I am sure that we will, it sounds confident from Hakan Abrak.
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So IO had a meeting with a powerful British matriarch? Wonder if they got any ideas for some upcoming targets perhaps? 
Interesting story tho, cheers for the translating Hardware 
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wow, the Broccoli family had no plans for another 007 game until IOI came along. thats some crazy good luck for Bond fans 
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Some interesting parts :
“I still get goosebumps when I think about when we agreed to do it. It was a boy’s dream come true. It’s huge, and we also get a lot of emails and calls from competitors who say wow - congratulations, how wild it is, ”explains Hakan Abrak, CEO of IO Interactive.
More than “just” a shooter
boy’s dream came true when the Broccoli family, which controls the James Bond franchise, nodded to Hakan Abrak and the rest of IO Interactive. The family reportedly had no plans at all for another game to be made over the secret agent, but they were convinced that IO Interactive could lift the task and create more than “just” a shooting game.
Instead, we did a lot to show them that we have a love for the agent universe and Bond. Our track record with Hitman convinced them that we are actually making role-playing games and sophisticated universes rather than shooting games, and that fits more into the Bond universe that they want to create, ”explains Hakan Abrak.
Would love more competitors
Developing a new Bond universe alongside other major projects is a huge task, and it focuses on one of the sore points for IO Interactive - and many other knowledge-intensive companies: the struggle to find skilled labor.
In 2019, the company opened a studio in Malmö, and in the near future, another European studio is planned to help ensure access to more employees - IO Interactive currently has more than 200 employees and is betting on having to hire 50- 60 new employees this year alone. By 2024, Hakan Abrak expects the company to have more than 400 employees.
“We are the only Triple-A study (large-budget game studio that makes larger franchise games, ed.) In Denmark, and that means that we lack competitors who help to create an ecosystem with talent and manpower. It also means that it is more difficult to attract foreign labor; do you take your family to Denmark if there is only IO - what if it does not work with us? That is why we also have to look a lot towards foreign countries, ”explains the director and elaborates:
“I wish there was a Triple-A studio in Aarhus and three or four in Copenhagen. I would love more competitors. That would make us sharper. ”
Hakan Abrak specifically points out that the lack of understanding of the gaming industry’s potential and structure among existing Danish investors contributed to IO Interactive being forced to look abroad for investment. Therefore, Hakan Abrak believes that there is a need for a boost in knowledge among investors in Denmark
“When I am contacted about possible investors, financial investments, potential stock exchange listing or purchases, it is most often from abroad, even Sweden, because they know how enormous the potential is. If we are to have more of the smaller studies to stay in Denmark and grow big, then it is about realizing the potential, creating a good investment environment and getting the investors involved. ”
The next Danish unicorn
If it succeeds in creating a James Bond masterpiece and its own original IPs, it can help IO Interactive meet the extremely ambitious goals that the company has set. The vision is to be the “most attractive game developer in Europe by 2024.” Other studios, own employees and the gaming community - ie players and reviewers - must think so.
"And then we have a goal of making a billion-dollar franchise game. In other words, a game that has a turnover of one billion dollars. It is up in the Spiderman and Star Wars category, but we believe that we can achieve it by 2024. It will also be a great pleasure that we can give back to Denmark, and it can hopefully inspire others - also public and private investors to help the smaller ones along the way. ”
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It’s reassuring that they knew what they wanted and that IO would jump at the opportunity to make a Bond game.
The Bond IP will definitely propel IO to new heights, but and I’ll say this I don’t want the game to be Third Person like hitman. I want the game to play similar to dishonored where we have a plethora of Gadget/Abilities to use in various environments that we can explore that aren’t large sandboxes.
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https://gamerant.com/io-interactive-james-bond-007-game-will-completely-original-story/
Abrak confirmed that not only will IO not be using the likeness of any actor who has portrayed 007 in the past but will also create a completely new story for their original Bond.
Abrak says that for the passion to be there, “It was very important for us that it wasn’t a movie adaptation.”
In this article, Hakan is “Haban”. 
Another name.
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New interview with Project 007 Game Director, Cosmo Wallace.
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i thought it was pretty interesting that he transitioned from Cinematic Director on H2 to Game Director on 007. pretty nice promotion
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I’ve been involved in four different projects here in different capacities during the last two and a half years. I was the Cinematic Director for HITMAN 2 and nowadays I’m the Game Director for Project 007, which means I am overseeing the creative and gameplay vision for this exciting and hugely ambitious game.
Two and a half years means he joined IO shortly before the release of HITMAN 2. So Project 007 and H2 account for two out of those four projects. I’m guessing he also worked on HITMAN 3 in some capacity, as well as IO’s unannounced project.
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It’s a mistake a Bond video game already made, 2010’s Blood Stone. Back then, this was after Quantum of Solace and before Skyfall started filming, so it was unclear back then what angle the films were going to take, whether the Quantum organisation thread would continue or not. So Blood Stone decides to have Craig fight another unnamed super organisation, chasing and killing a line of bad guys and their higher ups, but never reaching the top of the chain, and the game ending on a bit of a cliffhanger and teaser.
There was a Blood Stone sequel planned but was cancelled when the game bombed, mainly because Activision released the Goldeneye remake on the same day for the Wii. So hopefully it is a lesson IOI takes, especially when it comes to using other people’s licences.
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Now Project 007 is a property of Amazon. I hope they stay well in their areas considering how good Amazon is at making crappy games.
Amazon will own only 50 percent of Bond. The balance is held by Barbara Broccoli and her brother, Michael G. Wilson. The siblings also have ironclad creative control, deciding when to make a new Bond film, who should play the title role and whether television spinoffs get made. (They have blocked such efforts in the past.)
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