IO Interactive, the team behind the rather brilliant (IMHO) Hitman games, hopes their next James Bond origin story will be the start of a trilogy.
Speaking to Agency, IO head Hakan Abrak said the team feels like they've had “over 20 years of training for the agent fantasy,” thanks to Hitman. In fact, Agent 47 is a lot like Bond with his seemingly endless talents and ability to wield any weapon under the sun.
“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's not our original IP from the ground up,” Abrak told the publication, Adding one of the most interesting parts of the upcoming release is that it will be an original story of the British spy.
“So it's not a gamification of a movie,” Abrak continued. “It's completely starting and developing into a story, hopefully for a big trilogy in the future. And just as important and exciting, it's a new Bond. It's a Bond that we built from the ground up for the players. It's extremely exciting with all the lore. and all the history there is… to work on this together with the family [and create] a bond that players can call their own and grow with.
“It's been almost 15 years since the last game. So it's been a long time,” Abrak added. “It's definitely something that's not overexposed in games. In fact, we see it as a strength… There are a lot of people who think of GoldenEye as the classic… I don't want to talk too much about it, but I just hope we do something that defines James Bond in games for years to come and that it is not just a game, but that we create a universe for players to possess for many years and that we can grow with that alongside Bond in the movies. “
As for when we'll be able to see the fruits of the studio's labor, that remains a mystery for now. “I don't have any updates today, but believe me, there is a desire to talk about it soon here too,” Abrak admitted. “So we are following our plans. Production is going surprisingly well and we will talk more about it soon. I know it was a small teaser, not a lot of information, but there are a lot of interesting things to come.”
But while we may have to wait a little longer to hear anything more concrete about James Bond from IO, the studio also announced that it will be taking on publishing duties for MindsEye, the former big-budget action adventure in the works from the former TV executive. Rockstar Leslie Benzies.