IO's James Bond Game Aims To Stand Next To The Movies, Hitman Series Goes On Hiatus

New details have come to light about Hitman developer IO's new James Bond game, which tells an original story about the superspy's origins. IO studio boss Christian Elverdam told Eurogamer that the aim is to "reinvent" the James Bond video game series with the title. For what it's worth, the next James Bond films wants to be a reinvention of the character with a new actor.

IO's other top boss, Hakan Abrak, said the James Bond game aims to be a product that can "stand next to the TV and the movies and whatnot." The line about TV is curious because no James Bond TV series have been announced beyond the upcoming reality competition show.

Abrak went on to say that the pitch to James Bond rights-owners MGM and Eon was not for a simple tie-in that would make money based on the name alone.

"It's not just capitalizing on IP and doing one game and trying to earn something--it's not like that. When we commit to something we commit with everything: with community and how we grow this love for the game we're doing, and for the IP that we also promised we will treat like our own. And we'll create a community that the gamers can call their own," Abrak said.

"This can be something where the gamers say, 'Well it's not just a gamification of a video [and] did they convey Daniel Craig well or not? I don't know, let me look at the pixels.' It's an origin story. It's the beginning of something new and it's the beginning, hopefully, of something that the gamers can call their own," the executive added.

This tallies with what MGM's Robert Marick said in 2021 about the company's desire to make a truly great James Bond game as opposed to focusing only on leveraging the Bond IP to make money.

"When you look at James Bond, for instance, the opportunity to be able to tell an origin story and express that in terms of the [quality] that fans expect, we needed a console partner to be able to help tell that story," he said at the time. "We're not here for a quick buck, we're here for what extends the brand."

There is no word yet on when IO's James Bond game will be released, and it's one of multiple titles in the works at the studio, which is also making an online fantasy game. As for James Bond games you can play right now, the iconic GoldenEye 007 is available now on Xbox Game Pass and Switch.

As for IO's best-known series, the Hitman franchise is now on hiatus.

"Right now a major, major new Hitman game: that's a little bit on hiatus," Elverdam told Eurogamer. "We're building another agent fantasy that's also taking up a lot of our time.