IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak reckons the important thing to his studio’s survival in an more and more risky video games business is down the pan… actually.
In a candid interview with The Game Business, Abrak confirmed IO’s upcoming Bond recreation, 007 First Light, will profit from Hitman’s mannequin of retaining followers engaged whereas retaining improvement prices sustainable, because the studio acquired “tons of expertise now from World of Assassination, and tons of expertise on how to prolong a single-player expertise by giving fascinating free content material to gamers.”
“I used to be the manager producer on [2012’s] Hitman Absolution, and I swore by no means to do extra new bathrooms,” he defined. “We had been simply doing new all the things. It was only a throwaway. Once we had been doing the preliminary basis on Hitman 2016, we constructed it in a manner the place we might do sensible reuse.
“With out being too exact, Hitman 2016… to illustrate it was a $100 million recreation. Hitman 2 was possibly $60 million. Hitman 3 was $20 million. And Hitman 3 was the best Metacritic. It was 85, 84, and 87 Metacritic,” he added. “And it had very distinctive new areas.”
Intimating that the studio discovered the onerous manner that Hitman Absolution was a “wasteful manufacturing,” Abrak now says it “fully modified [the IO team’s] pondering.”
“Constructing this basis, the brick system as we name it, the place we will make an expertise, like [new Hitman mission featuring Mads Mikkelsen] in a short time and effectively,” he added. “This was a extremely [important] a part of us creating sustainable AAA manufacturing. I am not going to sit right here and say we’re doing all the things proper. We’ll carry on attempting to enhance and be much less wasteful, however nonetheless tremendous formidable.”
Whereas there may be, by Abrak’s personal admission, “an even bigger funding into Bond,” the director is assured that “longevity” will likely be constructed into manufacturing.
“If we had been to have a look at sequel at one level, who is aware of? At IO, we now have a extremely, actually great way of attempting to be environment friendly. That is extraordinarily necessary to us.
“The first goal with 007 First gentle is to come out with the very best, most impactful journey for players. Once more, with out giving an excessive amount of element, you might count on that we’ll be making use of a few of our learnings from World of Assassination to Bond.” I will definitely be counting the variety of bathrooms we see…
IO Interactive’s James Bond recreation was first introduced again in 2020 as Mission 007. From the off, IO stated that it was growing a recent James Bond origin story and an entirely unique piece of labor, relatively than something that adopted the occasions of any specific movie.
It wasn’t till June 2025’s PlayStation State of Play broadcast that we obtained our first correct have a look at 007 First Light. Set to launch in 2026, 007 First Light’s incarnation of James Bond was concerned in a childhood tragedy that left him an orphan on the age of 11, after which he spent the remainder of his childhood in varied British boarding faculties. We later see Bond as a younger recruit within the Royal Navy, from which he’s recruited by MI6.
Extra not too long ago, IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak has stated he hoped 007 First Light can be the begin of a brand new trilogy of video games, although, sadly, the studio’s beloved Hitman franchise is on hiatus whereas IO works on this recreation. We additionally discovered that as well as to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Collection X/S, 007 First Light is getting a Nintendo Swap 2 launch.
As for Hitman? It is not completely deserted, in fact. IO just announced that a co-op mode is in the works for the video games, and Mads Mikkelsen will reprise his iconic On line casino Royale function as an Elusive Goal. However as for brand spanking new Hitman video games, the franchise has formally been on hiatus since 2023.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, in addition to a critic, columnist, and marketing consultant with 15+ years expertise working with a number of the world’s greatest gaming websites and publications. She’s additionally a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually Excessive Chaos. Discover her at BlueSky.