007 First Light is 'insane magnum opus' - and it's finished, reveals studio boss

007 First Light is "finished" and is firmly in the polishing phase with the game being the studio's "magnum opus", according to IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak.

007 First Light is an upcoming third-person action adventure game with the world's most famous spy James Bond the main protagonist. It's an origin story that begins before Bond has become 007 and is a completely new take on the iconic character.

IO has just shared an update and new details about the game in the Xbox Partner Preview, which also revealed a new partnership with Aston Martin.

Speaking to indy100 just before the event, Abrak enthusiastically revealed how 007 First Light is the "magnum opus" for a studio that's been around for 27 years.

He said: "The game is done, the game is complete and playable from start to end, which is insane - after six years, we have a Bond game which is the most ambitious thing we've done, we can clearly say it is our magnum opus and that we're done, it's insane.

"There's still a lot of work with polish, graphics and what not but the game is playable from start to end and I'm really proud of what we have with the story, mechanics and more."

Hakan Abrak is the CEO of IO Interactive / Supplied

Abrak says it's been great to see the positive reaction to 007 First Light so far but refutes that the game is a cross between Hitman and Uncharted like a number of people have said on social media.

"This is not Hitman, people should not be going into this expecting a Hitman game, and some people were saying it's like Uncharted - it's not Uncharted," he said when these reactions were put to him.

"There are things from Hitman and things from cinematic games like Uncharted here but it's its own thing. It's a game that will take you into an emotional state, it will take you on a rollercoaster with curated cinematic scenes that take your breath away before opening up and you have to figure out where to go and how.

"We've not tried to shoehorn Bond into a certain structure because the Bond IP is a very dynamic IP - there are insane stunts, slow driving, racing, being smooth in social spaces, manipulation, thinking outside the box, hardcore action shooting, fighting, it's many things.

"It's a Bond that is not a movie Bond, it's an original Bond I hope gamers will embrace him as their own. I think there's something special there. It was important for us to build a Bond from the ground up with an original story so we could put our own fingerprints on this to make it a better game.

"It's about your Bond and how you want to go through the game - you might want to go through in a consistent, suave way with as minimal collateral as possible or you're very physical with an action player kind of approach."

IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak says 007 First Light is the studio's "magnum opus" / IO Interactive

There's no denying James Bond is a globally massive IP, which is something Abrak says has brought incredible pressure but the studio has relished.

"I can't explain how nerve wracking this has been because as you dig into the IP and you work with the people who have been working with it for many years, you understand what it means to announce a new Bond," he said.

"This is the first time IO has worked directly on another IP too, we've always done original IPs ourselves but with James Bond, we wanted to do this because if there's one IP in the whole universe IO should take a swing at, it would be James Bond. We've unknowingly been training for this for 20+ years."

007 First Light is one of the five nominees for Most Anticipated Game at The Game Awards and Abrak says this has been a huge boost to everyone at the studio.

He said: "In what can be a bleak time at the industry, with 007 First Light, we want to shine a light on AAA independent studios that are doing what they can to keep the flag flying high. It's all for the team, they've created something fantastic."

Could there be a sequel if everything goes to plan?

"If a sequel is something the community wants, and ourselves and our partners want, we'll see," Abrak said. "First Light is a standalone take on Bond before he becomes 007 and if the universe wants more, we have more in us."

Watch this space.

007 First Light releases on 27 March 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.

Elsewhere from indy100:

• 007 First Light is easily the best James Bond game since GoldenEye - can it beat it?
• James Bond game 007 First Light gets explosive first trailer

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