James Bond Rights-Holders Eon Productions “Were Not Looking For A Game” Before IO Interactive Pitched Them

Hitman developers IO Interactive are currently working on a James Bond game currently dubbed Project 007, and a more perfect match hasn’t come along since chocolate and peanut butter.

Even though every Hitman fan could see why this is a match made in heaven from the start, that’s not entirely how Eon Productions, the company which owns the rights to James Bond, saw things at first.

According to a recent interview in Edge Magazine, co-owners of IO Interactive Hakan Abrak and Christian Elverdam discussed how they had to convince Eon Productions to let them create this game.

“Our impression was clearly that they were not looking for a game, and I think it’s fair that they might not have been super-happy with some of the later games.” said Abrak, referring to the James Bond-based games which had most recently released, neither of which put a good taste in Eon Production’s mouth when it comes to a James Bond game.

What helped clinch Project 007 getting the green light, according to Elverdam, was their focus on this new game being vastly different from other entries, and instead being a stealth-focused spy game, where violence is your last resort outside of your targets.

“That helped us convince the Eon Group that there’s a sophistication in how we treat the agent fantasy” said Elverdam.

There’s still very little we know about Project 007, but this emphasis on stealth and “agent fantasy” already feel like IO Interactive is more than on the right path here.

When the team is finally ready to reveal more, it’ll be very exciting to see what IO Interactive, arguably the best stealth game developers working today, have created.

Source – [GamesRadar]