We have learned how much money IO Interactive had to work with to finally bring the game to completion.

According to DR, the Danish public broadcaster, it took seven years for the story of the young James Bond to come to fruition and reach players’ hands. This makes sense, since IO Interactive first announced 007 First Light in 2020, back then under the name Project 007. Seven years is no small amount of time, but this team is not as large as, say, Rockstar or CD Projekt RED, so the budget is on a smaller scale.

However, they also revealed that the game was developed with a budget of 1.3 billion Danish kroner. That is 202.8 million dollars, or 61.54 billion Hungarian forints. That does not seem like all that much when you look at the budgets of many recently released AAA games. And, of course, the game was not financed by another publisher or a console manufacturer, as IO Interactive published the game itself. (Speaking of publishing, this was at least more successful than MindsEye by Build A Rocket Boy; IO Interactive has already released sales figures for Bond, and we reported on them.)

The Danish public broadcaster did not cite a source, nor did it mention whether marketing costs were included in the figure (we believe they were not). However, DR would not simply make up fake news about a domestic developer, so this is another reason to believe this claim. Danish TV2 (which is also a public broadcaster, but airs commercials) also mentioned the 1.3 billion Danish kroner figure. However, they added that this was the most expensive game or entertainment product of any kind ever produced in Denmark. That is no small feat, though to be fair, the Nordic country does not exactly have a massive film industry either…

So 007 First Light is a success, and the only question now is when it will start turning a profit for IO Interactive following the MindsEye fiasco…

Source: Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/1tsloon/danish_public_broadcaster_007_first_light_cost/), DR, TV2