Here’s Everything We Know About IO Interactive’s 007 First Light

Years after it was first revealed as Project 007, IO Interactive’s James Bond game, 007 First Light has been showing off a lot more of what to expect throughout 2025. A 007 stealth game by the developer of Hitman was always something to be excited about, but recent announcements give an idea of how similar and how different the two secret agent simulators will be.

Here’s everything we know about the upcoming game.

When is the 007 First Light release date?

It took years for IO Interactive to reveal the release date for 007 First Light, but as of its September State of Play showcase, we now know when it’s due. 007 First Light is set to launch on March 27, 2026, and it will be available on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Is there a 007 First Light trailer?

An announcement trailer in 2025 showed off not only 007 First Light’s impressive visuals, but also a bit about what makes this James Bond different from others and what players can expect from the game. The Bond seen in the game is young, brash, and reckless, described by his superiors as “a bullet without a target.” The trailer shows explosive shootouts and chase sequences both on foot and behind the wheel, while hinting at a few of Bond’s new gadgets. In typical 007 fashion, he also ends up captured and beat up by his target quite a bit, which could make for some interesting escapes to play through.

What is the 007 First Light setting and story?

007 First Light is set in the modern day and, as you would expect from any James Bond story, takes place across multiple locations around the world, though IO Interactive hasn’t said exactly where we’ll be going.

The reason for Bond’s globe-trotting mission is a search for 009, a rogue agent who’s described in the trailer as a “master manipulator.” Other than that, it’s not clear exactly what he’s up to. As for Bond himself, he’s a rich kid who was orphaned at 11 years old when his parents sacrificed themselves to save him on a mountain-climbing expedition. After finding his own way back to safety, Bond attended prestigious boarding schools around England and joined the military. At the beginning of the game, he’s a new recruit to spy agency MI6, having led a brave, unauthorized, and so far mysterious rescue on a mission in Iceland.

IO Interactive has also said that the game isn’t part of the same canon as the James Bond film series, but instead, exists in its own world.

How will 007 First Light gameplay be different from Hitman?

Despite being developed by the same studio, Hitman and 007 First Light look like very different games. Hitman is all about moving through the world unseen or unrecognized until you’re in a perfect place to take out a target — or leaving a trap to do it hands-off. 007 First Light is also a stealth action game, but it looks like it will lean heavily toward the action side, complete with firefights and car chases. You’ll definitely do some skulking around and eliminating foes from the shadows, but that looks to be more of an opening for more straightforward action sequences than the way you’ll be expected to handle every encounter.

It wouldn’t be a James Bond game without plenty of gadgets to play around with. The game’s announcement trailer shows a motorcycle shooting flames out the back, and while it’s not shown in gameplay, I sure hope it will actually be usable. In actual gameplay sequences, we do see Bond using a souped-up laser pointer and smoke bombs to distract enemies. Bond can also focus in by using “instinct,” which builds up over the course of a mission, to slow time and line up more precise shots or take some time to plan. Footage from the September 2025 State of Play shows Bond using that ability to shoot a chandelier off the ceiling to crash down on enemies and aiming at a bodyguard’s hand to force him to drop his weapon.

That State of Play showcase showed off just how 007 First Light will compare to Hitman. In an extended look at an early mission from the game, it looks like many of Agent 47’s tricks are intact here, with Bond talking his way past security and causing distractions to get into places he’s not supposed to be. On the other hand, it’s clearly a much more action-forward game, complete with sequences of Bond fighting rooms full of bad guys, hijacking a plane to prevent a target from escaping, and stealing a parachute mid-fall to survive jumping out of that same plane. Where Hitman is open and free-form in how you approach objectives, 007 First Light seems much more focused on scripted setpieces — though that could easily change later in the game. Even in this early level, IO Interactive showed off multiple ways to get through the more open-ended stealth and infiltration sequences, even if they lead to the same shootout in the end.