Following a great critical reception, IO Interactive's 007 First Light continues to do well commercially, too. IO Interactive previously announced 1.5 million units sold in the first 24 hours, and Alinea Analytics now estimates the game has surpassed 2.2 million units sold through June 2. That rounds up to an estimated $150 million of gross revenue. Most buyers (55%) purchased the game on Sony's PlayStation 5, with 33% on Steam and less than 12% on Xbox Series S or X. The Steam version is surprisingly popular in China, with Chinese players accounting for over 17% of Steam sales, partly thanks to lower prices compared to the United States and Europe.
You'd think that kind of success would open the door to a quickly greenlit sequel, but things may be more complicated than that due to the rights situation. Speaking to Polygon, Amazon's Jeff Gattis (the new GM of gaming following the departure of Christoph Hartmann and the closure of several studios) suggested they'd prefer to make sequels themselves.
We did not make 007 First Light. We do have a stake in it because we now own the IP, but that IP acquisition happened after the First Light IO deal was already done. We didn't have the full rights to this First Light James Bond game, but sequels will be done by MGM and, theoretically, by Amazon Game Studios.
We do see this continued integration of video and movies and video games, where that line is becoming much more blurry. We think that's a real opportunity for us to create IP that extends — or kind of expands upon — TV shows and movies. So there'll be a Tomb Raider TV show on Prime Video that'll go alongside the games. There's a lot of things we have in the works on new games that'll relate to Prime Video IP. This is where we've kind of made some bets on first-party content.
That won't be reassuring to gamers at all. IO Interactive is a respected developer that proved it can make a great James Bond game with 007 First Light, whereas Amazon essentially destroyed much of its gaming operations by shuttering the studios behind New World and the in-development The Lord of the Rings MMO.
On the other hand, Amazon now owns the James Bond rights holder, MGM. Their acquisition happened after MGM's deal with IO Interactive, which is why IOI was able to self-publish. Perhaps Amazon will settle for publishing the game and getting a cut of the pie the next time around.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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