The latest teaser for 007 First Light that developer IO Interactive has posted to social media has drawn questions about the studio’s decision to spoil some of the in-game Easter eggs, like the fact that well-known influencer Khaby Lame has a cameo. According to Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, however, the studio has been doing this in order to boost its pre-order figures for the upcoming title ahead of its May 27th launch.
In a post, Ahmad wrote that the pre-order sales for 007 First Light weren’t as high as IO Interactive was hoping for, so the new teaser has been an attempt to raise awareness about the title among a larger audience. This is noted to be a different marketing style than the “old school marketing campaign” that the studio had been running so far.
“Opening sales aren’t tracking well [at the moment] so they’re trying to market it in unique ways,” he wrote. “They’ve run an old school marketing campaign so far that wasn’t getting much traction outside of people who grew up with Bond.”
In a follow-up post, Ahmad went on to mention that fans of single-player action adventure games like Hitman, as well as James Bond fans, likely already have an interest in the game. However, when it comes to a wider audience, he compared audience interest as being more in line with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle rather than Uncharted.
“Among an existing Bond / Hitman / SP action adventure base, yes. I’m sure it’ll do fine overall, but current interest is more in line with Bethesda’s Indiana Jones than an Uncharted [at the moment],” he wrote.
IO Interactive recently released a trailer for 007 First Light that focused more on how the adventure will take Bond all over the world. The trailer showcased a Vietnamese island that Bond is exploring under the alias St. John Smythe. Players will get to visit a vacation resort called the Pearl, where Bond has been tasked with planting Q-Traks on three targets.
IO Interactive has not been shy about its ambitions for 007 First Light, with narrative and cinematics director Martin Emborg saying that he wants it to be considered the best James Bond game ever made. He said this in response to a question about what kind of legacy he wants the game to leave behind.
“Just that everyone agrees that this is the best Bond game ever,” he said. Bond’s actor, Patrick Gibson, added, “Or just the best game ever,” to which Emborg responded by saying, “I’ll take that. That’s kind of the minimum that we can expect.”
As for Gibson, he has spoken about the young version of Bond that he portrays in 007 First Light, and revealed that he had to watch every Bond film and read every book that inspired the movie franchise as part of his preparations for the role.
“It felt like various iterations kind of highlight pre-existing characteristics, and are also kind of informed by the context of the time that they’re made in,” he said. “That was something that was interesting – they’re all like a different color of the same spectrum of something.”
007 First Light is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is also planned for release later in the summer.
