Developer IO Interactive’s 007 First Light reportedly had a budget of more than $200 million and took seven years to make.<\/p>\n
Behind-the-scenes details on the Denmark-based studio’s latest were shared in a report by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. According to the outlet, the James Bond video game was especially expensive to bring to life at 1.3 billion Danish krone (a little more than USD $202 million) to develop.<\/p>\n
According to reporting from Denmark’s TV 2, that makes 007 First Light the most expensive entertainment product in the country’s history. IO had no comment to share regarding its reported budget when contacted by IGN.<\/p>\n
It’s worth putting that $200 million figure into context. Most of the triple-A video game budgets that make headlines do so for being in the hundreds of millions of dollars range. Bungie’s recently released extraction shooter Marathon reportedly had a budget of over $250 million, for example. Concord’s initial development deal was around $200 million, according to a report by Kotaku. In 2023, documents submitted as part of the Xbox Federal Trade Commission case accidentally revealed The Last of Us: Part II and Horizon Forbidden West each cost more than $200 million to develop. So, in that context, 007’s $200 million seems par for the course.<\/p>\n
Some games have astronomical budgets much bigger than 007’s. For example, last year the development budgets of the Call of Duty games were revealed for the first time after a court document confirmed Activision pumped $700 million into Black Ops Cold War alone, although that was over the shooter’s life cycle. At the top of the tree is GTA 6, which may well be the most expensive video game ever made; parent company Take-Two is estimated to have spent $1 billion to $1.5 billion so far on its development.<\/p>\n
As for IO’s development timeline for the new James Bond game, we already know the project was officially unveiled back in late 2020. If the Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s reporting is accurate, it would mean the Hitman studio had entered some form of development on the project around one year before its reveal.<\/p>\n
IO launched 007 First Light for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S last week, May 27. It’s unclear exactly what numbers the studio would need to hit to recoup its costs or how that reported $200 million budget breaks down, but we do know that it’s already off to a strong start.<\/p>\n
On May 29, just two days after its launch, IO announced the game had already managed to become its fastest-selling game ever at 1.5 million copies sold in just 24 hours. According to Alinea Analytics head of market analysis Rhys Elliot, Valve’s Steam platform accounted for 500,000 copies from that number, generating about $25 million in revenue alone.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n007 First Light screenshots<\/h3>\n