There's one game that is constantly on my mind, and it's Project 007. The pairing of IO Interactive and the James Bond franchise is an elite tier match, one that should hopefully give us the finest Bond gaming outing yet. With Summer Game Fest around the corner, Geoff Keighley reveals the first round of developers participating in the event, and I'm hoping IO Interactive's presence isn't for MindsEye.
In a recent post on social media, Keighley announced the initial slate of studios taking the stage at Summer Game Fest. "We're proud to welcome a record-setting 60+ partners for Summer Game Fest 2025, a global celebration of video games in Los Angeles this June," expresses Keighley. Among industry giants like Supermassive Games, Bandai Namco, and PlayStation, Hitman developer IO Interactive is gearing up to seemingly reveal something of its own.
The first thought that comes to mind is appearing in a promotional capacity for MindsEye, the debut title from Build a Rocket Boy, which IOI is handling publishing duties on. MindsEye releases on June 10, 2025, just a few days after Summer Game Fest. However, the studio's publishing efforts are under the IO Interactive Partners banner, which is notably absent from Keighley's announcement. Is it finally time to lift the curtains on James Bond's return to gaming?
Summer Game Fest is the perfect place to reveal Project 007 to the world, and it would come a month after confirming it as a future title for the Nintendo Switch 2. Project 007's initial announcement dropped in November 2020, with what feels like radio silence over the last five years. Aside from an untitled fantasy game, Project 007 is IO Interactive's main team effort currently, with the Hitman franchise on hiatus for now.
Not only is the new Switch game notable for resurrecting Bond's gaming credibility after the abysmal 007 Legends, but it also comes in the wake of Amazon's purchase of the James Bond IP. Whether this had had knock-on effects for the game's content is unknown. Nevertheless, in the breadcrumbs of information IOI has been dropping, the studio did reveal it hopes to launch a fresh Bond gaming universe with a potential trilogy.
Project 007 is an original story, with no ties to any of Ian Fleming's existing novels or movies across the last four decades. IO Interactive describes the game as "a wholly original Bond story, [where] players will step into the shoes of the world's favorite secret agent to earn their 00 status in the very first James Bond origin story."
It sounds very similar to Fleming's Casino Royale, but as a fan of the Charlie Higson Young Bond series, I'm hopeful we may get to see a more rugged, unseasoned Bond that we've never seen before. I'm curious to see whether IO Interactive is sticking with its open-ended level format for Project 007 or leaning into something more linear. Either way, the hype is high.
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