As to the reason behind the delay, IOI didn’t go into specifics – only that it’s “looking forward to bringing you the best game experience possible across all platforms.”

Of course, this isn’t surprising to anyone who’s been keeping track of the development of games like Borderlands 4. While originally announced for Switch 2, it was put on hold, allegedly due to proving a “challenge” for “months” up till that point.

Then there’s Bethesda’s Starfield, rumored to be launching for the platform and then seemingly set aside. Recent reports indicate that it’s still in the works, but that the process has allegedly been far from smooth. With the development team focusing on Free Lanes, Terran Armada and the PS5 version, one must wonder if it was stretched too thin.

Either way, we’ll need to wait for more details on 007 First Light’s Switch 2 version. In the meantime, those on other platforms can look forward to playing it on May 27th. Head here for more details on how the development team is approaching Bond, including a reliance on improvisation to prevent him from breaking character.

As head writer Michael Vogt states in the latest episode of “Beyond the Light,” the development team wants players to have agency but also needs them to “feel like Bond” all the time. “In Hitman, you are kind of able to go spectacularly out of character at any given moment, but you can’t really do that with Bond. That feels wrong. He’s too established.”

Thus, instead of presenting different branching choices, it’s challenging players to improvise instead. “So, your Bond can be more of a brawler, or he can be clever and talk his way out of situations, or he can stealth around and use gadgets. Those are all valid choices,” says Vogt.

“So, we use choice as a way for players to feel clever and to think on their feet like a proper 00 agent, but without ever actually breaking character.”

That lack of branching also extends to conversations with other characters. There’s always going to be one mandatory option, but you can still explore other options and learn more about the world. “So it’s about how interested you are in this world, in this situation and characters. Part of the creative approach is also eavesdropping, especially in a social arena.

“There are a lot of similarities we did in Hitman where you have to listen in on conversations to obtain hints and unlock opportunities to solve a certain objective along the way.” As you’re exploring the environment and looking for ways to bypass an obstacle, you may meet other characters and thus expand your worldview. Rinse and repeat.

Since you’ll have the opportunity to replay missions with “additional modifiers,” it’s also a great way to familiarize yourself with the mission before taking on more challenges. IO Interactive has yet to really dive into those modifiers or how they’ll work, so stay tuned for more details ahead of 007 First Light’s launch on May 27th for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.

After all, this is a younger version of Bond – one who’s fresh out of the army (with some brief snippets showcasing some of his dangerous missions) and joins MI6 to find his path. But even though he learns a lot along the way and matures, First Light isn’t looking to “resolve” his character.

“So, we are going to put him on a trajectory,” says Vogt. “But we’re not going to resolve the character in this game. I think to me, Bond is someone who clearly grows and evolves, but he’s not somebody who changes fundamentally. Rather, he has some innate qualities that make him an agent of change. You know, he changes the world, right? He does that all the time.”

And while he isn’t the posh yet jaded individual that we’ve seen in movies and books, there are some “inherent Bond qualities” present “from the get-go.” However, instead of transforming into the Bond we know and love, First Light’s story is “as much about how he changes MI6 and how he changes the characters around him.”

“Bond has heart, and he’s very tenacious, and he’s willing to take risks, and that actually changes the way MI6 operates in an era that is otherwise kind of risk-averse and data-driven. Our Bond definitely leans more on other people than we’re used to seeing. One, because he’s not a seasoned agent yet and he’s still learning the ropes and also because games are fundamentally different from film in that players spend a long time alone on the sticks,” said Vogt.

“So you do need that supporting cast to communicate the story, really. So Bond has several strong relationships throughout the campaign, some known and some new, and they each kind of affect him in different ways and play a role in how he develops as a character.”

We’ve already been introduced to several such figures, including M, Miss Moneypenny, Greenway and Q, who’s especially interesting because he’s more of the “cool uncle figure.” Of course, it remains to be seen how the villains will affect Bond’s development. Bawma (played by Lenny Kravitz) and his rise from nothing is one example, but there’s also the unrevealed 009, who has betrayed the agency for unknown reasons.

007 First Light launches on May 27th for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.

The Pierce Brosnan era of Bond has primarily featured an older Q, one who baulks at his antics but also has a kind of “twinkling” in his eye, a sense of wonder at inventing. That same sense is present in 007 First Light, but this time, he’s slightly younger, more fitting the “cool uncle figure” that Mackenzie saw him as when growing up.

“First Light is, as I say, more of an origin story. We see him as a slightly younger man, and we see him as somebody who’s experienced in the field. He has to teach Bond how to become an agent effectively. He’s more of a kind of teacher-mentor figure. There’s a lot of tech involved.

“You know, he kind of likes to mess around a bit, and Q has to keep him in check and remind him that he has a job to do, and he has to do it properly, and he can’t mess around with these gadgets because they’re dangerous, and he’s got to treat them with the respect and the care that they deserve. Our Q has to be someone who commands that kind of respect, has that sort of authority.

“He is the sort of professor and the teacher and the mentor, but is also a little bit of a twinkling of his eye as well, and he’s a friend of Bond as well.”

Interestingly, he also teases that Q has a “few tasty moves under his belt” that he can use when necessary. “Q would not be where he is today if he were not experienced in the field himself,” says Mackenzie.

As for Greenway, he’s also a mentor figure, but one who’s not particularly high on Bond joining the 007 program. His impression of Bond is “someone who got lucky and should just, you know, keep walking,” as narrative and cinematic director Martin Emborg describes him.

There is a lot more information to glean, including lead and senior character artist Beatrice Harty explaining the process of designing villains like Bawma, scanning actors for their in-game characters, and more. Sadly, there are no hints on who 009 could be.

007 First Light launches on May 27th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2, so stay tuned for any updates on that front. In the meantime, you can check out an extended version of Bawma’s reveal with much more alligator action.

Bawma is seemingly going to be one of the antagonists in 007: First Light that Bond has to deal with. He has been described as the leader of a black-market arms network that spans across the Western hemisphere, named Aleph. Much of his monologue in the trailer revolves around how greed can cause an infection that can affect the entirety of Aleph, and how such infections must be caught and fixed early.

Not only is Kravitz doing the voice work for Bawma, he is also providing motion capture, lending his mannerisms to the unpredictable arms dealer. The scene itself puts Bond in an elaborate trap much like you would expect from any other story in the franchise, with our protagonist and his MI6 mentor John Greenway dangling over the pit of crocodiles. Keeping with James Bond traditions, this is unlikely to be the end for our protagonist, as he will likely find a wily method of escaping this predicament.

Bawma is unlikely to be the only antagonist we get to grapple with throughout the story of 007: First Light, especially since the story revolves around Bond’s hunt for agent 009. However, little has been revealed about this mysterious character.

The State of Play showcase from earlier this month also featured a brand new trailer for 007: First Light, this time around focusing on the story and personality of James Bond. The narration also included a few bits of action-packed gameplay sprinkled in, giving us a look at different weapons and vehicles, including boats, cars and planes.

Just last week, gameplay director Andreas Krogh had spoken about how the title’s various systems will come together to give players the true feeling of playing Bond. The most important aspect for this is the concept of “forward momentum”.

“Forward momentum is one of these things where we just wanted to… Bond is really a character that thinks on his feet a lot, and we want to bring that into all our mechanics, both stealth and combat,” he explained.

“In combat, you see this in the way of us having a range of features that kind of closes the gap to enemies. So part of our close combat system is rushing an enemy, but also the ranged combat is like, okay, you might not have a million ammo for your guns, and that means you run low on ammo.”

“You have to pick up new ammo. How do you get new ammo? You get it from the enemies that are in front of you. So move forward to them. Use some of your closing the gap abilities. Disarm enemies. You get a new gun. Shoot that dry, throw your gun to the next one. Then he’s staggered. It’s easier to run up and take his gun again, or take his ammo and carry on from there and shoot more.”

007: First Light is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 on May 27th.

However, it quickly became apparent that James Bond would venture into other areas, including action-filled set-pieces, fast-paced driving and extensive CQC. “Forward momentum” is a mantra from the development team. In a new cover story interview with Game Informer, gameplay director Andreas Krogh discusses how it combines with all the systems to make you feel like Bond.

“Forward momentum is one of these things where we just wanted to…Bond is really a character that thinks on his feet a lot, and we want to bring that into all our mechanics, both stealth and combat.

“In combat, you see this in the way of us having a range of features that kind of closes the gap to enemies. So part of our close combat system is rushing an enemy, but also the ranged combat is like, okay, you might not have a million ammo for your guns, and that means you run low on ammo.

“You have to pick up new ammo. How do you get new ammo? You get it from the enemies that are in front of you. So move forward to them. Use some of your closing the gap abilities. Disarm enemies. You get a new gun. Shoot that dry, throw your gun to the next one. Then he’s staggered. It’s easier to run up and take his gun again, or take his ammo and carry on from there and shoot more.”

That same “velocity” is something that the team is also trying to implement into the stealth – a significant departure from Hitman, where you would usually observe and then mull over your choices. It’s less about “letting you be in a cover to think for a long time” and more letting you “cover to observe your options once you have that, then use one of them, basically and probably one of them will create a situation that you can use for something else and carry on from there.”

Even the environment itself plays a role in all this, especially with the enhanced destruction. “Basically, it’s also in the environment interactions, where if you explode something, maybe something crumbles that creates a new path for you. Like showing you new options all the time because doing something will kind of drive you towards that option, which we then try to always make you go forward, basically in any given encounter.”

Thus far, we’ve seen Bond rush towards an enemy, knocking them over the edge and using their body to break his fall, and destroy a walkway which can be used to venture forth. However, you can leverage the environment in more subtle ways, like luring enemies into a room and then locking them in by lasering the doorknob.

With 007 First Light out on May 27th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch, it feels like we’re only scratching the surface of what players can accomplish as Bond. Stay tuned for more updates and check out the latest story trailer here.

Krogh describes the gameplay of 007: First Light as being based on “forward momentum”, especially when compared to the slower-paced stealth-driven gameplay of the Hitman series. To keep the tempo of the Bond game high, the studio wants to give players enough options that the time they need to make decisions is drastically lower than in a typical Hitman level.

“Hitman was a game where we thought about [stealth] as puzzle design. We’re taking that same type of stealth into Bond,” he said. “But I will say an important difference is that in Bond, we are striving to do forward momentum gameplay all the time, both in combat and in stealth.”

“Where in Hitman, we had some setups where we wanted you to use some time to stake out the situation and maybe poke a little bit at it to see what happens. In Bond, you can use time to observe a situation, but it’s very evident there are options you can use right away, and you can just use them and see what happens and come forward. We want to reduce that decision-making time to always keep moving forward and be a little bit faster.”

While IO Interactive has made no secret of the fact that many of the things it had learned in the development of Hitman games were helping with the development of 007: First Light, the studio has also spoken about how the upcoming game will be quite different. One such example came courtesy of cinematics and narrative director Martin Emborg, who noted that Bond’s game will have more focus on its narrative than the typical Hitman title. He compared it to 2012’s Hitman: Absolution, which had plenty of story moments and cutscenes breaking up its gun-based combat and stealth-based gameplay.

“The reason for this approach is that the Bond experience is much more focused on narrative, and very often on a ticking clock of some kind – so leaving the player to their own devices in a World of Assassination style sandbox doesn’t cater to the needs of an action/adventure game like 007 First Light,” explained Emborg. “Social stealth and infiltration are huge components of the game, but it simply needs that extra narrative focus that Absolution had.”

007: First Light is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 on May 27. For more details, check out its recent story trailer, which focused on Bond’s character. PC players might also be interested in the fact that its RAM requirements have been lowered.

Along with the story setup itself, we also get a glimpse at some of its action-packed gameplay sections, involving a variety of different weapons and vehicles, from boats to cars, and even planes. The trailer then changes gears to showcase how it will blend action gameplay with its social stealth mechanics, since Bond will often have to hide from his enemies in plain sight.

Earlier this month, studio CEO Hakan Abrak had spoken about how IO Interactive’s experience with the Hitman franchise helped in the development of 007: First Light. He also noted that, while the studio learned quite a few things, James Bond’s approach often tends to be different from Agent 47.

Back in December, another trailer had been released that gave us our first look at one of the main antagonists of 007: First Light – Bawma, as played by legendary musician Lenny Kravitz. The character has been described as the most prolific black-market dealer in the Western Hemisphere, and at one point, also threatens Bond by dangling him over hungry crocodiles.

007: First Light is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 on May 27th.

This change in pacing will borrow from 2012’s Hitman: Absolution, which mixed in gun fights with stealth, espionage, and a focus on narrative. While Emborg noted that some players might not like this, since even Absolution had a mixed reception when it first came out, it is a necessity owing to James Bond as a franchise being more narrative-focused.

“The reason for this approach is that the Bond experience is much more focused on narrative, and very often on a ticking clock of some kind – so leaving the player to their own devices in a World of Assassination style sandbox doesn’t cater to the needs of an action/adventure game like 007 First Light,” he explained. “Social stealth and infiltration are huge components of the game, but it simply needs that extra narrative focus that Absolution had.”

Alongside the bombast that you might expect from a Bond-styled action sequence, Emborg noted that social infiltration will also play a vital role in crafting the overall story.

“I hope that the social infiltration experience will make players feel truly like Bond, with all of his wits and charm at their fingertips – not shooting anyone, not driving a cool car, but simply being Bond – and that’s something that has not really been explored before in video games,” he said. “The action is great, but we hope that players might be surprised at how much they enjoy those quieter experiences.”

Gameplay director Andreas Krogh also chimed in, saying that 007: First Light will have a balance between linear gameplay segments that focus on storytelling and exposition with more open gameplay areas that offer players more freedom in their approach. Much like Hitman, 007: First Light will also offer a list of challenges that will encourage players to revisit already-completed missions.

“Obviously, the more linear segments, which are focused on story exposition, won’t have a lot of variation, as they are supposed to deliver the same narrative outcome every time,” said Krogh. “But every time we open up in the core gameplay areas where you can fully choose between stealth and combat, there will be multiple distinct ways through those areas, which will open these up for some replayability. On top of that, we have a list of challenges for each of these areas to make sure you explore and experience all there is in the more open areas.”

007: First Light is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2. Originally slated for release in March, the title has since been delayed to May 27. In the meantime, check out its PC requirements, which eventually got updated to reflect that less RAM was actually required.

The video, coming in at just shy of 17 minutes in length, features Krogh and Pulluelo watching the reactions that various streamers and gamers have had to the title, and what exactly was the thought process that went behind some of the game design decisions in 007: First Light.

Among the things that Krogh spoke about was the fact that, similar to the Hitman series, 007: First Light will also have Enforcer-type enemies that will have an easier time in detecting the player regardless of whether or not they are using the appropriate costume. “It’s not the exact same thing [as Hitman] but it’s related, so we have these NPCs that can see through you because they know the people working there. That’s the idea about it,” he explained.

Krogh also spoke about promoting creativity in players by giving them plenty of ways to accomplish their objectives. However, he also noted that this comes down to players also needing to be aware that these options exist.

“You need to know that there are different options in the game,” said Krogh. “If we start violating that trust as developers, the player will forget those options or not use them, because they don’t rely on them. And then it becomes a much more narrow option space. So you get less creative.”

“The last thing, and I think this is a key ingredient that we also had in our prior stealth games in Hitman, was, and I coined this as ‘uncertainty in execution’. It’s really the thing that, you know your own options, you see the options in the environment, and you get to that point where you think ‘okay, I’m going to try this thing.’ When you get to the other point and get past them, you think to yourself, ‘Oh I did it! It actually worked!’”

Pulluelo spoke about wanting to present all the options available to players in ways where they can be noticed. To do this, the level design revolves around ensuring that players have visuals on every opportunity that is available to them throughout the game.

IO Interactive has been quite open about having learned lessons from its time developing the Hitman titles, and how these lessons have helped with the development of 007: First Light. Just last month, studio CEO Hakan Abrak spoke about the lessons that were learned about episodic releases for the first game in the recent Hitman trilogy, especially when compared to recent releases like Dispatch.

In the meantime, 007: First Light is being developed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2. For more details, check out the Aston Martin Valhalla that will be present in the game.