“We have been allowed to create our own digital Bond, which will not rely on a Bond actor,” Hakan Abrak, director of IO interactive, told the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. This means that we will not see the parable of Daniel Craig or Pierce Brosnan after the match – the character will be completely unique and not related to previous Bond performances. “We also came up with a completely original story, and you could easily imagine a trilogy coming out of it,” Abrak added.This suggests that Project 007 cannot be just a single game. It could be a series, just like Hitman, with new locations and missions in each version. Abrak also revealed that IO Interactive is stepping up and plans to hire many more staff to realize its ambitions. “Today we are 200 employees and I expect that we will be more than 400 employees in the next few years,” Abrak said.
Abrak also talks about the meeting in which IO Interactive convinced the license owners, EON Productions, that the game is a good idea. According to the interview, IO had a meeting with Barbara Broccoli of the Broccoli family, who controls the rights to the James Bond franchise. Broccoli was initially ‘expressionless’, but quickly came to the idea. Abrak says the studio’s ‘background with the Hitman universe’ and his vision for Bond ‘went to the heart’ of Brocolli, which illuminated the project. Abrak also notes the usefulness of ‘good Scandinavian charm’ rather than the ‘great American arm movements’ that Abrak thought EON was probably used to.Previous coverage of the interview suggests that Broccoli mentioned that she did not believe previous Bond games were ‘worthy enough’ and that they portrayed violence ‘for the sake of violence’, but these quotes are apparently from the interview cut from the time of writing.
For more details on Project 007, check out our coverage of the announcement here. You can also watch our video that explains why a Bond game from the makers of Hitman has great potential.
Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.