A Sneak Peek into Project 007: IO Interactive’s New Bond Game
While the wait for Bond 26 is ongoing, our favorite well-groomed master spy is returning to the spotlight! Yes, you’ve heard it right: Project 007, a veiled codename much like James Bond himself, is currently being crafted by the masterminds at Danish game developers, IO Interactive.
This studio, which handed us some of the sneakiest stealth games in history, is now replacing our old buddy Agent 47 with a certain license-to-kill operative from Her Majesty’s Secret Service. With a hiatus longer than Bond’s list of lady loves since 007 Legends debuted in 2012, it’s no surprise we’re on tenterhooks.
Project 007 – A Fresh Chapter
Before you throw your shaken, not stirred martinis in the air, let’s dig into the details. Project 007 isn’t going to regurgitate old stories from Bond’s illustrious legacy across movies, games, and novels.
Nope, this game is going to offer a fresh-from-the-oven adventure, hot enough to melt the frostiest martini. MGM Studios backs this, and they’ve declared that “gameplay is king,” and they’re hell-bent on delivering a “top-tier game.”
There’s more mystery surrounding Project 007 right now than in a Cold War-era Bond plot. Don’t get your hopes up for a sneak peek in the 2023 new game roster. But that doesn’t mean we’re leaving you empty-handed. From storyline to a speculative launch timeline, here’s the intel on Project 007.
The First Project 007 Announcement: Just a Teaser?
The initial announcement for Project 007 is like a tantalizing appetizer. IO Interactive let us know, “Project 007 is a brand new James Bond video game to be developed and published by IO Interactive,” – not exactly filling, but enough to whet our appetite.
Christian Elverdam of IO then threw us a bone. “First of all, it’s extremely awe-inspiring and literally just inspiring to work with the team at Eon, the people who are behind everything Bond,” he said.
His gratitude was palpable when he mentioned the trust they had in IO to “build a James Bond for the games audience, which I think is a profound homage to where our industry is and where the medium is, in the sense that yes, it’s time to have a James Bond character who was not a movie character but who’s comfortably just his own game character.”
Oh, the anticipation!
Hold your Horses: Project 007 Release Date?
The countdown to the Project 007 release date is much like waiting for the next Bond film. IO Interactive’s “long production phases” mentioned in a recent report suggests we might have to wait longer than a Bond villain monologue.
Mattias Engstrom, the mastermind behind Hitman 3, said, “There are so many excited developers in the studio,” regarding the project 007, but he didn’t give any release date.
Teaser Trailer: An Appetizer, Not the Main Course
The Project 007 teaser trailer is as mysterious as M’s real name. It shows a bullet being loaded into a gun, with the trademark Bond theme music building up in the background. And then the classic gun barrel sequence, a shot is fired, and bam! “Project 007” on a red screen.
Take a look at the teaser, but thats all it is…
Action! Possible Gameplay Style
An old job post from IO Interactive suggests that Project 007 could be a third-person action game. They were scouting for someone with “experience working with third-person action games” to work on this “wholly original” Bond game.
While nothing’s set in stone, it is worth considering given IO’s past exploits with Hitman.
Whose Bond is it Anyway?
Hakan Abrak, CEO and co-owner of IO Interactive, spilled some secrets about the Bond we’ll be playing as. Don’t expect a digital clone of Connery or Craig, however. They’ve cooked up their own “digital Bond” that won’t lean on any Bond actor.
Abrak also mentioned in an IGN interview that each incarnation of Bond somehow epitomizes a generation, and stressed that their inspiration didn’t spring from just one movie or game, but instead from the entire Bond franchise.
“Every Bond kind of defines a generation and it’s amazing how they keep reinventing themselves over so many years,” said Abrak. “So, we’re not only inspired by one movie, or games and whatnot. We’re inspired by the whole thing, and just sucking things into us to make an original Bond, an original story, but that is absolutely true and recognizable in the values there is in Bond.”
So, hold on to your seats, ladies and gents, we’re in for a wild ride. Only time will tell whether IO Interactive’s version of our beloved Bond will hit the mark or miss it by a mile. As they say in the world of spies, the game is afoot.
