The story surrounding a 007 First Light sequel has become a bit messy, as comments from Amazon’s Head of Gaming, Jeff Gattis, seemed to indicate future titles in the series would be published by Amazon. This got fans worried that IO Interactive might not be developing, either. Now, Gattis is trying to clean the story up a little.
Simon Cardy of IGN had the opportunity to interview Gattis, and tackled the subject head-on.
“First of all, let me set the record straight for you,” said Gattis. “I did not confirm that Amazon Game Studios is publishing the next one. Did not say that. So unfortunately, it got picked up, and once it runs, it runs. No, IO’s been great. They’ve been great partners. In fact, I was over there visiting them in Copenhagen a couple of months ago. The game’s doing great. Let’s let the game breathe and have its day.”
This is…odd. Gattis’ original comments came from Polygon, which also interviewed the man. In their article, they state: “In an interview with Polygon, Jeff Gattis, GM of gaming at Amazon, says that while the tech giant ‘didn’t have the full rights to this First Light James Bond game,’ sequels will be ‘done by MGM and, theoretically, by Amazon Game Studios.’”
The wording seems clear enough, so either Polygon didn’t get it right, or Gattis said exactly what he appeared to say: MGM or Amazon Game Studios would be involved in publishing future Bond games.
Does this mean IO Interactive could still self-publish the game? That would be odd since Amazon now fully owns the rights to James Bond.
Regardless, the real concern was who would be developing the sequels.
“Trust that we’re going to be smart about this,” Gattis told IGN. “I mean, it’s market appetite. As long as we feel there’s a desire for players to have the game, it’s safe to say it’s going to be made.”
That’s about as close to a confirmation as Gattis can probably give without saying anything he isn’t meant to. And while it doesn’t outright confirm IO Interactive as the developers, it seems like that’s the safe bet.
Just the other week, IO CEO Hakan Abrak expressed how happy he and the team are with the game, stated he’s “very confident” it will make a profit, confirmed it had now sold over 3 million copies and offered up more details about the $200 million budget. He also said that any future sequels will likely follow Hitman in that they will be much cheaper to make.




