IO Interactive's 007 First Light was a resounding success, especially when it comes to the reception of critics and fans, and yet Jeff Gattis, the new general manager for Amazon Luna and Amazon Game Studios, had previously floated the idea that Amazon, as the holder of rights to James Bond's IP, could take the sequel away from the Danish developer.
That did not sit well with the millions of players who enjoyed the action/adventure game. A few days later, Gattis clarified that nothing had been decided yet, and now, in a new interview with GamesIndustry, he has opened the door to IO Interactive's stewardship of the series.
We did not confirm anything about who's publishing or developing the next Bond sequel. Like Hakan Abrak (CEO of IO Interactive) said, we haven't even discussed it really yet. The game's awesome. That's great. I think it's realistic to think that there would be a sequel. Technically, Amazon does own the rights to the game, but we're going to do what's right by the game, we're not trying to bring everything into Amazon. Given the success of this one, I think you probably want IOI developing it. We're going to do what's right by the game, we're not trying to bring everything into Amazon.
In the interview, when asked whether Amazon would consider acquiring IO Interactive in the future, the executive replies that anything is possible, but quickly adds that there are no such conversations at present.
Gattis also discussed Amazon's broader strategy for gaming, which is to leverage its IPs across various media, including film and TV.
The vision for us is to get to much more of this world where you can imagine going into Prime Video and seeing a page that is much more about fandom and IP, as opposed to 'here's a bunch of shows'. So you see the Tomb Raider TV show, here's the Tomb Raider video game, here's Tomb Raider merchandise you can buy on Amazon.com.
Amazon ditched its MMO teams that were making New World and The Lord of the Rings. However, it is still publishing the upcoming Tomb Raider games, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst, from Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog.
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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