Work on the Switch 2 version of IO Interactive‘s James Bond origin story 007 First Light is coming along nicely, with the game on track for a summer release.
While 007 First Light has been available on PC, Xbox and PlayStation since the end of May, IOI had delayed the game’s Switch 2 release for a later date. “We’re excited to see players discovering James Bond’s reimagined origin story and we are looking forward to bringing you the best game experience possible across all platforms,” the team said at the time.
IOI has not given a specific date for 007 First Light on Switch 2, the studio did say it was “looking forward to later this summer” in relation to it. IOI senior licensing producer Theuns Smit told Pocket Tactics the studio was “seeing really good progress on the optimisation side of things”, and that everything is “charging ahead, it’s going great”.
“In the future, once we’re ready to share even more, we will, but from what I can share, at least now, things are on track and moving, and that it’s going well,” Smit said. “We want to make sure that we give it its time in optimisation and performance, [so] that it reaches the quality that not only we desire, but that we feel our players deserve.”
007 First Light is the first James Bond game in more than a decade, and it places players into the shoes of Patrick Gibson’s inexperienced and somewhat reckless secret agent. The game mixes stealth and combat and, um, charm, with something that feels familiar to IOI’s Hitman series but also more action packed. And as this is a Bond game, there are of course driving sections as well (I would like to apologise for all the scuffs I have given the Aston Martin).
Earlier this month, IOI revealed that 007 First Light had sold an impressive 2.7m copies in its first week on sale. Tt was also revealed in a crucial statistic that wine bottles were the most common thrown item, representing 36 percent of all thrown projectiles. Literal plonk. There have been 34m missions started and 30 percent of those have been completed successfully. Naturally, these numbers will be even higher now.
“007 First Light is less cerebral and replayable than IO’s World of Assassination trilogy, but makes up for it with excellent fistfights and oodles of charm,” Rick Lane wrote in Eurgamer’s own review, awarding 007 First Light four stars. And the good news is, there is more to come, and IOI has significant post-release plans for 007 First Light.
If you are making your way through 007 First Light but need a little extra hand, be sure to check out our guides. Here’s a walkthrough of 007 First Light’s third mission to get you started.
