Hitman’s Massive Haul Bankrolled IO Interactive’s 007 First Light

IO Interactive just said the quiet part out loud: Agent 47 paid for James Bond. Not metaphorically. Literally.

Hitman wrote the check for 007

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, IO Interactive CEO and co-owner Hakan Abrak confirmed that the studio did not take money from investors, publishers, or corporate deals to build its new James Bond game, 007 First Light. The bankroll came from one place.

"It is just from Hitman. Again, as I said, we are extremely blessed with the World of Assassination being so successful."

That long tail started back in 2017 when IO bought itself back from Square Enix, kept the Hitman IP, and went fully independent. Since then, the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy has kept the lights on and then some, turning the series into the kind of steady earner most studios dream about but almost never get.

How 47 became IO's golden goose

World of Assassination still pulls in players and revenue four years after Hitman 3 launched. IO kept interest up with regular updates and smart add-ons that actually make the game better instead of bloated: seasonal content, live modes, and crossovers like an upcoming December mission riffing on Eminem vs. Slim Shady, set in a weird, performance-heavy fever dream. It is an unusually clean example of live elements supporting a single-player game instead of wrecking it.

Three projects, zero panic

Abrak says IO is now juggling three things at once: 007 First Light, ongoing development and support for Hitman, and a separate multiplayer fantasy project. The fantasy game involves external partners, but the Bond game is paid for entirely in-house, and the studio remains fully independent.

And the scale of the Hitman audience explains why they can do this without flinching: IO says nearly 85 million people have played World of Assassination, it has sold well over 25 million copies, and the game still averages more than a million monthly active users. For a single-player series that kicked off this era in 2016, those are wild numbers.

New Bond footage is flashy, but the business story is the real eyebrow-raiser

The latest 007 First Light look dropped during this week’s Xbox Partner Preview and, yes, there is a cinematic tease of Bond’s new ride: the Aston Martin Valhalla. In-game, it is positioned as a hybrid twin-turbo V8 with 1000+ horsepower and the kind of Q-Branch extras you will not find in the brochure. It is a great trailer moment. But the behind-the-scenes reality that Hitman money is footing the bill for Bond? That is the headline.

That GTA 6 delay quietly did Bond a huge favor

Rockstar bumping Grand Theft Auto 6 from May 26 to November 19, 2026 reshaped the whole calendar. For IO’s planned March 27, 2026 launch of 007 First Light, it is a gift. Abrak did not pretend otherwise, noting that spring suddenly looks, well, pretty ideal. The alternative would have been a pre-GTA media steamroller.

He also played it smart diplomatically: GTA 6 arriving later is still good for the business overall, potentially pulling lapsed players back into the habit, which tends to lift everything else around it.

Spring 2026 is still crowded, though

Even without GTA in the way, March is getting packed with big narrative-forward releases across platforms. As it stands right now:

• Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake (Koei Tecmo) — March 12, 2026
• Saros (Housemarque, PS5 exclusive) — March 20, 2026
• Crimson Desert (Pearl Abyss) — March 20, 2026
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Remake (Ubisoft, reported) — March 2026
• 007 First Light (IO Interactive) — March 27, 2026

So yes, Bond dodged Rockstar’s marketing juggernaut. But he is still walking into a month with four other big swings all chasing the same attention span.

My read

It is rare to see a studio bankroll a second mega-franchise off the back of one single-player series, and rarer still to say it out loud. Agent 47 as studio sugar daddy is both funny and impressive. The upside is control: IO does not have to dance around a publisher’s mood swings or cancelation spreadsheet. The risk is obvious, too: when you are self-funding, you are betting your own house.

If 007 First Light lands, this becomes a case study in how to do live support right and use it to fund ambitious new IP work with a major license. If it stumbles, well, March will not make that any easier.

Your turn: does Hitman’s long-tail success prove that live features and single-player can actually play nice? And will Bond benefit more from a clear spring runway, or get forgotten once GTA 6 takes over the rest of 2026?