IO Interactive Built 007 First Light for Half Typical AAA Co

Ballooning AAA budgets have become one of the industry's most persistent anxieties. Games routinely cross $200 million before marketing, and studios that miss sales targets by even a narrow margin face layoffs or closure. IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak says his studio doesn't operate that way, and he's using 007 First Light as proof.

In an interview with The Game Business, Abrak acknowledged that 007 First Light is IO's most expensive project to date, but pushed back hard on the assumption that AAA automatically means runaway spending. "I'm looking forward to talking about it, because these games can be done for half of what you hear about out there," he said. He credited the studio's proprietary Glacier 2 engine and an internal culture focused on efficiency, pointing to the Hitman trilogy as a case study. In a separate interview from a year ago, Abrak broke down those numbers bluntly: if Hitman (2016) cost $100 million, Hitman 2 cost roughly $60 million, and Hitman 3 came in at around $20 million. One cost-saving measure he highlighted was eliminating "wasteful" asset creation, like building brand-new toilet models for every game.

That suggests 007 First Light's pre-marketing budget likely sits north of $100 million but well short of the $200 million-plus range where many competing blockbusters land. In an era where publishers are spending GTA-level money on games that sell a fraction of GTA's copies, I think more studios need to be having this exact conversation publicly. Abrak isn't just bragging about frugality; he's making a case that owning your own tech and retaining institutional knowledge across projects is a competitive advantage. Studios that license engines, churn through contractors, and rebuild pipelines every cycle are paying a tax that players never see but always feel when the resulting game ships half-finished or drowns in monetisation to recoup costs.

Abrak also rejected the idea that a game needs to recoup in its first three months or be considered a failure. "It's about bang for the buck," he said. "It's not about, if you haven't recouped in the first three months, you are doomed, or it's over." He pointed to how the Hitman trilogy evolved over years, eventually being recompiled into Hitman: World of Assassination with a roguelike mode, as evidence that long-term community building pays off.

007 First Light launches May 27 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. A Switch 2 version has been delayed to late summer.