IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak reckons the important thing to his studio’s survival in an more and more unstable video games trade is down the pan… actually.
In a candid interview with The Sport Enterprise, Abrak confirmed IO’s upcoming Bond sport, 007 First Gentle, will profit from Hitman’s mannequin of maintaining followers engaged whereas maintaining growth prices sustainable, because the studio acquired “tons of expertise now from World of Assassination, and tons of expertise on easy methods to prolong a single-player expertise by giving fascinating free content material to gamers.”
“I used to be the chief producer on [2012’s] Hitman Absolution, and I swore by no means to do extra new bogs,” he defined. “We had been simply doing new all the pieces. It was only a throwaway. Once we had been doing the preliminary basis on Hitman 2016, we constructed it in a method the place we might do sensible reuse.
“With out being too exact, Hitman 2016… to illustrate it was a $100 million sport. Hitman 2 was perhaps $60 million. Hitman 3 was $20 million. And Hitman 3 was the very best Metacritic. It was 85, 84, and 87 Metacritic,” he added. “And it had very distinctive new places.”
Intimating that the studio discovered the onerous method that Hitman Absolution was a “wasteful manufacturing,” Abrak now says it “utterly 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 down right here and say we’re doing all the pieces proper. We’ll carry on making an attempt 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” might be constructed into manufacturing.
“If we had been to have a look at sequel at one level, who is aware of? At IO, we’ve a extremely, actually great way of making an attempt to be environment friendly. That is extraordinarily necessary to us.
“The primary goal with 007 First mild is to return out with the very best, most impactful journey for players. Once more, with out giving an excessive amount of element, you can anticipate that we’ll be making use of a few of our learnings from World of Assassination to Bond.” I am going to definitely be counting the variety of bogs we see…
IO Interactive’s James Bond sport was first introduced again in 2020 as Venture 007. From the off, IO stated that it was creating a recent James Bond origin story and an entirely unique piece of labor, moderately than something that adopted the occasions of any explicit movie.
It wasn’t till June 2025’s PlayStation State of Play broadcast that we bought our first correct take a look at 007 First Gentle. Set to launch in 2026, 007 First Gentle’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 colleges. 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 Gentle could be the beginning of a brand new trilogy of video games, although, sadly, the studio’s beloved Hitman franchise is on hiatus whereas IO works on this sport. We additionally discovered that along with PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Collection X/S, 007 First Gentle is getting a Nintendo Change 2 launch.
As for Hitman? It isn’t completely deserted, in fact. IO simply introduced {that a} co-op mode is within the works for the video games, and Mads Mikkelsen will reprise his iconic On line casino Royale position 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 largest gaming websites and publications. She’s additionally a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually Excessive Chaos. Discover her at BlueSky.
