Project 007: Everything We Know

IO Interactive, a studio best known for both Kane & Lynch and the Hitman series, is rustling up a new form of agent fantasy for consoles and PC—an action-packed adventure that’ll no doubt please a whole lot of James Bond fans. That’s right, the ever-popular MI6 spy is porting his way over to modern hardware, and if what IO Interactive is saying turns out to be true, then you’ll want to keep the aptly titled Project 007 on your radar over the course of 2024, for sure.

At the time of writing, there isn’t a concrete release date for Project 007. Having said that, we do know that, as of 2021, the devs have been working tirelessly to tighten the few remaining bolts in order to ship it to franchise die-hards. Curious to know more about the highly anticipated 007 sim? Here’s everything we can tell you based on the information provided to date.

What Is Project 007?

To put you in the picture, Project 007 is a third-person “agent fantasy” game that’ll be heavily focused on James Bond, as well as an entirely new storyline set in that same universe. According to IO Interactive, who’ve previously poured heart and soul into fleshing out the Hitman: World of Assassination IP, Project 007 will serve as the studio’s next primary project, which of course means Agent 47 will be taking a “hiatus” for the foreseeable future. Not to fret, though, as the devs have also made it abundantly clear that they’ll be returning to Hitman, stating that it’s “still very much in the heart of this company.”

“Right now a major, major new Hitman game…that’s a little bit on hiatus, as we’re building another agent fantasy that’s also taking up a lot of our time,” IO Interactive CCO Christian Elverdam told EuroGamer. “But obviously we’ll come back to beloved Agent 47. He’s still very much in the heart of this company.”

Since making the announcement back in 2020, IO Interactive hasn’t shared all that many details on Project 007, aside from a couple of in-game screenshots and a short preview trailer. That said, here’s everything we’ve been able to collect from the interviews and local appearances that have been posted to date.

Story

According the MI6—the site that handles “The Home of James Bond”—Project 007 will serve as an origin story for the beloved spy, and will feature a brand-new plot that’ll essentially include its own twists, turns, and characters. In other words, fans of the franchise will have the chance to watch the preliminary episode unfold, and above all, the events that led to Bond earning his stripes as the famed 007.

“Featuring a wholly original Bond story, players will step into the shoes of the world’s favourite Secret Agent to earn their 00 status in the very first James Bond origin story,” MI6 touted in a recent post.

It is worth pointing out that, as far as actual events and plot points travel, we don’t actually know a lot. It’s an origin story — we’ll leave it at that.

Gameplay

From what we’ve gathered so far, Project 007 will be a third-person action-adventure game, and one that will take several pages out of the Hitman book. In other words, we can expect to see a fair amount of stealth-based missions, covert operations, and the odd bit of sharpshooting, to list just a few things. Aside from all that, there’s really no telling what features will make the cut in the final version.

Development

Bond, James Bond.

🎮 Explore our exciting career opportunities on Project 007.
Visit https://t.co/0VwiPz6DZT to learn more! pic.twitter.com/pWnuENmJzQ

— IO Interactive (@IOInteractive) November 24, 2022

The biggest question that currently looms over fans of Hitman is this: what will happen to World of Assassination, what with IO Interactive now shifting its focus over to a new license? Well, the good news is, the Hitman anthology will continue to receive updates on the side, which means fans of the ongoing agent sim needn’t worry about missing out on anything, in particular. As for a new major release, though, it seems the team will be using Project 007 to study new ideas, with which they will use to “re-articulate” the sandbox.

“I hope we can have our cake and eat it too, in the sense that we have such a wonderful platform where we can keep experimenting with what the formula can do and what people expect of it,” Elverdam said. “And then at some point, obviously, as any creative, it would be nice to then go in and say, ‘Okay, well, with everything we’ve learned, what would that be if we had to re-articulate a sandbox—what would that look like?'”

Project 007 has been in active development for the best part of three years now, with the team announcing its arrival back in 2020. As it currently stands, though, the game could still be a few years off, what with IO Interactive still actively seeking new programmers and other studio hands to assist in the development process. Bottom line is, it probably won’t be coming out in 2024, so if you had high hopes of filling the boots of the womanizer, then you might want to redirect your attention elsewhere for a while. Sorry, folks.

Trailer

As much as we wish there was a trailer for Project 007, the reality is, there isn’t. Having said that, there is a short teaser of it, though it doesn’t exactly give much away. You can check that out for yourself in the video embedded above.

Release Date, Platforms & Editions

Again, we don’t have a release date for Project 007 just yet. But then, if we’re going by what MI6 posted on its blog page, then it seems the most likely window for it to release will be sometime in 2025. It’s also likely to arrive on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for any future updates on the respective store handles.

Interested in staying up to date with Project 007? If so, then be sure to check in with the folks over at IO Interactive for all the latest pre-launch updates via their official social handle here. If anything does change ahead of its global debut, then we’ll be sure to fill you in on all the key details right here on gaming.net.

So, what’s your take? Will you be getting your hands on a copy of Project 007 when it arrives on its chosen platforms? Let us know your thoughts over on our socials here.