Amazon to self-publish future James Bond games after MGM takeover

Amazon Game Studios and subsidiary MGM will publish future James Bond games themselves. After the success of the recent action game 007 First Light, the tech giant wants to further expand its intellectual property with films, games and TV series.

007 First Light was published by developer IO Interactive itself. The game had already been in development for several years when Amazon acquired the film studio MGM in 2022, an Amazon executive emphasized to Polygon. Nothing is known yet about the future 007 games. It is unclear whether these are sequels to the 'prequel game' First Light or completely new games.

It is also not clear whether IO Interactive will make the games. The developer was part of Square Enix for a long time, but has been independent since 2017 and retained the rights to the Hitman franchise.

MGM has owned the film rights to James Bond since the 1990s. With the acquisition, those rights now belong to Amazon. Given the success of the first major Bond game in over a decade, there is a good chance that more games based on the franchise will be released. This also fits with Amazon's broader strategy to create different types of media around major intellectual properties, for example games and films within the Tomb Raider franchise.