The latest game from IO Interactive sees the developers behind Hitman take on the James Bond franchise, with 007 First Light releasing yesterday. After the first 24 hours since release, IO have announced that 1.5 million copies of their Bond origin story have sold within just the first day. This is a huge milestone to be broken so quickly, and shows a promising start to what could potentially become a new game series.
Taking inspiration from the original novels and the blockbuster film series, 007 First Light has been in development for around five years, and is the first major James Bond game since 2012’s 007 Legends. The failure of the underperforming shooter led to Activision’s licence with the IP being revoked by studio MGM and Bond production company Eon Productions.
Now though, IO have found success with both critics and audiences, as their sales milestone pairs nicely with the 87 Metacritic score and shows resounding success for their first venture into the British spy universe. CEO at IO Hakan Abrak told IGN that the studio desired to make a whole Bond trilogy, giving their younger interpretation as James Bond time to grow with the audience, which now seems even more likely given the size of the audience they’ve found.
For those unfamiliar, 007 First Light tells a story of James Bond’s origin, from being an officer within the army to finding his way into the British secret service and becoming the legendary spy we all know today. The game follows Hitman‘s roots of giving players different ways to approach certain situations, but differentiates itself with a faster play style, more investigation and shifting focus from assassinations to spycraft.
007 First Light is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, with a Switch 2 release coming later this summer. A matching DualSense controller is also available for PS5 players with the Midas touch.
For more updates on all things IO Interactive and 007 First Light, check back often to GameObserver!
