James Bond Game Sold 2.7M Copies in One Week? IO Interactive's CDO Explains.

0:05Hey everybody, we are here at IOI Access here at Summer Games Fest 2026. Very excited to be here with the Chief Development Officer, Vero Lallier. See, you say it so much nicer than I would ever have said it. It's so much better. It's okay. Say it the way you want. First of all, congratulations. First of all, I'm really excited to talk to you because I think there's so many things that I think, as a person who was waiting for this game for a long time. I was here at the previous event back in December, and we had our first chance to kind of see what the game was going to wind up being. We saw the cast.

0:43We saw the reimagining of all these iconic characters that are in the game. And now we're a week and some change out from launch, and the team has absolutely killed it. with what was it? I think Hakan shared some new numbers around like 2.7 million copies sold. Yes. Congratulations on such a fantastic achievement. That is really, really cool. Yeah, that's awesome. I am hyped for you all because as a person who has wanted a Bond game, a real true to life is as far true to life as you can get Bond game come to life from a team that I know and love and has made some of the most iconic games on the planet.

1:24how does it feel to kind of have this moment where you're getting to see the fruits of your labor really come to pass it's incredible i mean um for us as a independent studio um the time the energy is a passion we put in a game making is super important seven years in the making um seven seven years, seven, the magic number had to be seven. And seeing, you know, the reaction of the players, the feedback we received, it's just so satisfying. You know, you never know. I mean, you have an idea of what you're making and we're testing and we're making sure we're delivering the best experience we feel.

2:09It's right. But you never know. it's it's uh you know you you're looking at uh you're launching the game you're looking at the the reviews coming in and like you're like oh is it is it happening oh my god yeah so many good feedback so many uh praise from our industry but from the players from everybody i mean really really so happy to be in where we are today you know it's it's amazing and yeah i i loved what you talked about on stage a little bit earlier tonight about again the players kind of being able to drive you know the success of what both Hitman and now First Light have become and having so many different ways for players to play you know the conversation of having like was it 14 different or was it 17 different platforms that the game is on so yeah 14 14 and having so many different almost generations of players be able to kind of jump into this world What has it been like to kind of think about that in your role of how do you both kind of manage these two very specific games that are not similar, but come from a lineage of really interesting gameplay that you all have mastered over the years?

3:24Yeah, I mean, we are actually quite proud of our DNA and legacy about making agent games. So Agent 47, now, you know, 007, two agents. But they are very different, actually, because 47 and Hitman, World of Assassination, it's about sandboxes and also the way 47 tackle the enemies, tackle his mission. He has to be extremely strategic, think about it, and try to find the best way for him to eliminate the target. And we offer to the player, in terms of experience, a lot of opportunities. There are so many ways you can achieve what you need to achieve successfully with 47. While for 007, first light is completely different.

4:21first the game is not at all sandbox it's narrative driven but also james bond don't hide he walk in a room and he will use his charm he will use his gadget he will use a lot of different tactics in order to achieve his mission so they are very different uh completely different into the approach but they are still both of them are agent but they you play them really really differently yeah i think one of the things that i love about the the first light has been the fact that it does feel so different to what i'm used to in hitman i was telling uh hildy and matthias upstairs that people don't want to watch me stream hitman because i play so slow because i'm always trying to figure out the best way to kind of get the assassination done and trying to make sure i'm doing all those pieces but while i'm playing bond i'm feeling like i'm embodying this character that I've known forever and you've nailed some of those really small intricacies of the the world building the feeling that you're controlling the suave but but new character who's learning to become that person that we've gotten how has it been to kind of work through the process of reimagining what an iconic character has has always been but giving it a new flavor that feels so different I mean, first, thank you.

5:46Thank you for the compliments. I think we take that. We're very happy. It's been very interesting for us. To your point, it's finding the right balance between authenticity, but yet being appealing to younger generation of gamers. for an IP that has been maybe not so much exposing those younger generation of gamers so in America I think the game is a tin rating we have different ratings in every country but so what we've been trying to do is making sure we keep everything we're doing relevant for all those audience but authentic and I think we find the right mix. You know, I don't think we didn't be true to the brand and we kept, you know, some of the specificities that has always made who he is.

6:46But yet, trying to reinvent and appeal to the younger audience by, you know, working with talents that are appealing to a younger audience like Patrick Gibson is obviously very, very big on, you know, for younger audience. and I think it was just a perfect nail, you know, for us, you know. And it's funny because as a mother, my teenager, I was explaining, you know, what we were doing and he's like, so tell me the name of the cast. He said, names. I don't know. Sure, sure, sure. And then Patrick Gibson said, oh yeah, I know this one. I've heard about this one. Yeah, yeah, that is cool, it's cool.

7:26Wait, no Lenny Kravitz? He was like, no Lenny Kravitz? No, Lenny Kravitz, no idea. I was like, oh, surely you know Lenny Kravitz? Like, no, never heard of him. It's like, okay, well, I guess, you know. My wife knew who Lenny Kravitz was. She was like, are you going to go see that game? I was like, yeah. She was like, is Lenny going to be there? I was like, probably not. She was like, damn. I was like, I'll take the picture and make you jealous to be hanging out with Lenny Kravitz. But that is interesting to hear you talk about it. And I think that that's really important too, which is this new reimagining of these iconic characters through some amazing actors and actresses on this particular project, especially, you know, I'm a big Lenny fan who I love.

8:11I'm infinitely jealous that he was here and I didn't get a picture with him. But having that pedigree of so many really brilliant actors take on these roles who have been on stage, who have been in multiple movies and TV, what was it like to kind of get that kind of talent to sign on for a game like this? Oh, it's I mean, it's they say they say it's himself. It's been like it was an adventure for them and they were like really excited to take part and be part of his Bond origin story. I think Patrick Gibson is saying as well, it's like he's been like consuming a lot of, you know, authentic James Bond content, but wanted to make sure he could bring his own twist.

8:54And I think the involvement of our cast has been just incredible. but of course working with Akan and Martin Enborn to direct, you know, what we were doing and what was the approach. But I think as well them putting, you know, they're adding their value, adding their views and helping us to as well shape the way the character would have to interact between each other and stuff. It's just been so fascinating. I mean, like we were talking about that earlier. Naomi was mentioning it earlier that the relationships they build over the years working together wearing those great costumes for the mocap I love what they call them which we will not say on the show we won't say it on the show but I think it's us created they work as a team like a movie team and they create this relationship and by staying together doing the things together they create as well those bonds and friendship.

9:57And I think you can feel that as well when you play the game. You can see how they interact between each other. And I think that brings a lot of authenticity. And it's actually really helping for the player to immerse in the role, understand like, wow, I'm this young James Bond and I'm going to earn my double zero. And it's really translating into the game. What is your favorite part of doing this work? As a person who has been doing this for a while and as a person who is learning to do more work in the industry, what is your favorite part about getting a chance to do this? To be honest, it's having the player feedback and receiving all those praise from our players.

10:43The passion as well, they give back to us by creating content online, sharing their experience. I mean, when we launched a new Elusive Target, I love, I just love watching, you know, the concentrator having a go and recording how they eliminated the target. And I think it's just something I love. Or when they find all the Easter egg, we hide into our different mission. I think that's, I just love that. I think it's awesome. I mean, I've been excited to see how much that has grown, too. You had Mila in the game, and now you're going to have Wiz Khalifa in the game. Wiz, I'm the only Khalifa here, because my name is Khalifa as well, so you've got to be careful.

11:34But it's been cool to see that also, of growing through the culture as well, of seeing these new kind of celebrities come to the series and be excited for it. Really quickly, what have your thoughts been about that, too? I mean, it's incredible to see, you know, we have ideas on, you know, how we want to make the game evolve and bring talent into participating to create, you know, to be part of this universe. And it's been just incredible to see, like, the reception and the feedback from the talent when we contact them. It's like, yeah, I so want to do that. This is awesome. and I remember like when we were starting to do more of Elusive Target our players were trying to figure out who is next and whatever I was like oh no they cannot have M &M no surely they can't it's an independent studio no they won't and actually they're always like wow this is insane and I think we also we get inspired a lot by some of our players feedback sometimes on Reddit we see oh yeah they say oh that would Wouldn't that be awesome if the next target was XYZ?

12:44And then we go and we're like, oh, yeah, that's a good idea, actually. And we're trying to approach the talent and see, would you be interested? And I think the feedback so far has been incredible. We have a lot of surprise for the rest of the year. And we will talk more about that in the next few months. But really, really excited with every piece of content and the elusive target we've been working on with the team. and bringing to Hitman more challenges for him to eliminate. And let our players carry on on eliminating targets because more than one billion. Yeah. Those numbers were nuts. One billion elimination.

13:29Here you go. Oh, man. It is a really fantastic time to be a fan of anything that Ayo is doing. Biro, thank you so much for spending some time with me. And a personal thank you to you and the team because we got a chance to put a mission in the game some years ago. It was a bucket list thing for me that we got a chance to check off. And it meant to put us in a new space to be able to be like, people, we're legitimate. People like us. So it was fantastic. So Vero, thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you so much for the time. Everybody at home, we're going to have more goodies from Summer Games Fest very, very soon.

14:05Talk to you soon. Bye.

14:10bye