007 First Light is almost a month old already, but the excitement of Patrick Gibson's James Bond debut isn't fading just yet. Between hammering out every TacSim or checking every story mission challenge, First Light's post-launch life is just beginning. While we got our first glimpse of the game's roadmap at Summer Game Fest, there's one inclusion that needs discussing: the Nintendo Switch 2 port. In my recent chat with senior licensing producer, Theuns Smit, he assures me that First Light's handheld iteration is coming along smoothly.
Ahead of 007 First Light's launch on May 27, 2026, IO Interactive clarified that the Nintendo Switch 2 version required some more time to get it up to the studio's standards. The developer's CEO, Hakan Abrak, recently told The Game Business that "to be completely honest, we need a bit more time to get it where we want it to be. We said summer. It's probably going to be late summer. But we're going to get it out." But what's the latest with it?
"It's charging ahead, it's going great, we're seeing really good progress on the optimization side of things, because that's basically what it's all about for us," Smit says to me on a Teams meeting last week. Right now, Smit expresses that "we want to make sure that we give it its time in optimization and performance, [so] that it reaches the quality that not only we desire, but that we feel our players deserve."
While there's no word on a release date yet, or whether it will utilize the Nintendo Switch 2's hardware uniquely, Smit shares that "we're just looking forward to later this summer, moving into it, and you know, in the future coming once we're ready to share even more, we will, but from what I can share, at least now, is things are on track and moving, and that it's going well." Given that the studio brought Hitman: World of Assassination to the handheld last year, which also uses IOI's proprietary Glacier engine, we should see similarly impressive results.
Beyond the Nintendo Switch 2 version, I ask Smit for more information about the roadmap. For me, New Game Plus is where First Light could get a whole new lease of life. If we can get outfit changes, at the very least, then we're off to a good start. Smit can't reveal too much just yet. Still, he adds that "I think everything we showed was quite exciting […] getting to have a bit more screen time with Bawma, and diving a bit deeper in the story, and some extended gameplay with the driving sections […] that we've been excited to put in there."
Smit is keen for the addition of Photo Mode, as he excitedly says to me, "That, for me personally, just also as a gamer, I love having that, you know, within games and being able to put that more into our players' hands. I'm just looking forward to seeing all the snapshots people are going to be taking, sharing, and bringing more of their own creativity into this experience eventually."
007 First Light is out now on handheld PCs, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. You can read my 007 First Light review, played entirely on the Asus ROG Ally Z1e.