Project 007 is very cool and will tell the story of the first bond, says IOI; Project Fantasy is "Years Away"

Gamereactor interviewed two key members of IO Interactive Barcelona at Spain's Gamelab 2023 event, and they got a few tidbits about the studio's two biggest upcoming games: Project 007 and Project Fantasy.

Of Project 007, senior technical executive producer Cris Vega said:

007 is in development and it looks very cool. It's going to tell the story of the first Farmer and how he becomes the secret agent he is, but that's all we can comment on.

Project 007 was unveiled in November 2020 with little information. Over the years we have learned that there will not be an adaptation of any of the James Bond films produced by MGM. Job ads also made it clear that it will be a third-person action game with sandbox levels and cutting-edge AI, although that was not at all surprising coming from the studio that makes HITMAN.

Gamereactor also got a few comments about IO Interactive's other big upcoming game, Project Fantasy. Officially announced a few months ago, it was previously known as Project Dragon when rumors suggested it might be an Xbox exclusive. On that note, lead core engine programmer Alvaro Fernandez couldn't really comment:

This is not our domain. I don't think anything specific came out about this so we can't comment on that.

Senior technical executive producer Cris Vega added that Project Fantasy may still be a long way from release.

Yes, it is an online multiplayer RPG and will probably be like all other IOI games, probably on console and PC, but nothing is confirmed. It's still a few years until it comes out.

IO Interactive has seen a massive expansion to accommodate the ambitious roadmap now that it has put HITMAN on hiatus. In 2023 alone, they opened two offices, one in Istanbul and another in Brighton, UK. The full headcount of IOI has passed 300 employees and the goal is to continue growing to around 400 employees, although none of the individual offices (which also includes Copenhagen and Malmö) are expected to get more than 100-150 developers.

As a reminder, IO Interactive was one of the studios listed by Microsoft's internal documents to look for a potential future acquisition target.