Forget Hitman and Bond, IO's Building a Fantasy RPG

1.5 million copies in 24 hours. A peak of 68,477 concurrent players on Steam. A four-star review consensus. By any measure, 007 First Light is a hit, and IO Interactive has just proven it can build a blockbuster outside of the Hitman sandbox. So what's the studio doing with that momentum? Pouring its biggest team into a game that has nothing to do with spies, assassins, or tuxedos.

Project Fantasy, first announced back in 2023, is IO's next major release. According to Eurogamer, who visited IO's Brighton studio ahead of 007 First Light's launch, the game is deep in active development, with concept art on the walls and creatures being animated on-screen. IO's chief development officer Véronique Lallier confirmed the team working on it is already "bigger than the Hitman one" but "smaller than the 007 First Light one." Given that First Light just shipped, those numbers are likely shifting right now.

The project is being led by IO co-owner and chief creative officer Christian Elverdam, while CEO Hakan Abrak headed up 007 First Light. That split tells you something about how seriously IO is treating this. It's not a side project or a B-team experiment. It's the co-founder's baby.

What We Actually Know

Not much, honestly. IO described Project Fantasy in 2023 as "an online fantasy RPG" built "from the core to entertain players and expand for many years to come." Whether that means a full MMO, a shared-world game like Destiny, or something smaller remains unclear. The project's website shows a single piece of concept art: an elf, a human, and a dwarf standing at the mouth of a cave, looking out at a green mountainous landscape. The words "Looking for more!" Are scrawled at the bottom, mimicking the group-finder calls from MMOs. A handful of short developer videos from 2023 offer vague enthusiasm, with lead sound designer Joshua Smith saying, "We're trying to create something that I think doesn't exist in the space, currently."

Lallier framed the pivot as consistent with IO's DNA. "IO has always been about original IP," she said, pointing to Freedom Fighters and Mini Ninjas. "I think actually 007 First Light is the only game in an established franchise." She's conveniently leaving out the Kane & Lynch games there, but stands: IO has historically swung between genres more than most studios its size.

I'm excited about this, and I'm also nervous. IO has earned enormous goodwill by shipping polished, systems-driven games with real personality. The Hitman trilogy is one of the best stealth franchises ever made, and First Light's sales suggest the studio can translate that quality to new IPs. But "online fantasy RPG designed to expand for many years" is a phrase that should make anyone flinch in 2026. We've watched Anthem collapse, Concord die in under two weeks, and Destiny 2 struggle to retain its audience. The graveyard of ambitious online RPGs is vast and well-populated. IO making a great single-player experience is one thing; building and sustaining a live-service world is a completely different challenge, and one that has humbled studios with far more experience in that space.

IO isn't abandoning its current hit, at least. Lallier confirmed a dedicated team will keep supporting 007 First Light with new content, similar to how the studio handled Hitman's post-launch updates. With known issues still being tracked and a first hotfix already live to address crash bugs, there's clearly work to do on that front too. But the signal is clear: Project Fantasy is where IO's creative ambition lives now. Whether that ambition survives contact with the realities of online game development is the question that matters most.