007 First Light is a marvelous achievement rooted in IO Interactive’s seminal sandbox stealth gameplay, but wholly unafraid of ambitiously exploring a ton of other gameplay features to craft a well-rounded and cinematic James Bond epic. It’s also neat that IO developed and published it on its own, though the future of the 007 IP and IO’s role in shaping it via video games was already altered before 007 First Light was released.
Indeed, it was announced last year that Amazon MGM Studios acquired “creative control” of the James Bond franchise, and ultimately decides what may become of IO’s theoretical 007 First Light sequels. Many fans instantly took this to mean that Amazon will assume developer duties as well as publishing duties, and while it has now thankfully been clarified, there are still fans who are worried about IO and wary of Amazon’s hand being in that cookie jar.
In an interview with Polygon, Amazon GM of gaming Jeff Gattis confirmed that the James Bond “IP acquisition happened after the First Light IO deal was already done,” and that any sequels would now be “done by MGM and, theoretically, by Amazon Game Studios.” Likewise, an Amazon spokesperson told VGC...
