The James Bond IP is the only external franchise developer IO Interactive is open to working on.

That’s according to CEO Hakan Abrak, who told Variety that handling the intellectual property “made sense” after working on its own Hitman franchise for so many years.

“We’ve created other original IPs from the ground up — ‘Bond’ is actually the only external, licensed IP that we’re working on,” he said.

“And I would say that’s probably the only IP we will work on externally that is not ours. Somehow, it kind of made sense after 25 years of rehearsing for the agent fantasy and doing 007. That was a match made in heaven, you could say. But there’s no doubt Hitman has been our flagship game, our long love for all the time IO Interactive has existed.”

Abrak also confirmed that there will be another entry in the Hitman franchise, but cautioned that that would be in the works after the launch of the co-op mode, Stone & Knight, that was announced back in June of this year. The exec also provided some colour as to how Hitman: World of Assassination is faring, echoing remarks that he made to GI.biz last month.

“Hitman, obviously, is ongoing and strong,” he said.

“Hitman: World of Assassination has been an expanding universe for the last 10 years. We have had more than 85 million gamers play it, and we have north of 25 million copies sold. Every month, we have more than a million people playing ‘Hitman’ consistently. That’s pretty amazing after all these years.”

At last official count – the start of 2025 – Hitman: World of Assassination had reached more than 75 million players, so the series has grown its audience by 22% over the last 11 months.

IO Interactive’s James Bond title – 007: First Light – is set to launch on March 27, 2026.