By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Sales - 007 First Light took 7 years and $200 million to make; sold 4m in first 3 months

Tagged games:

Otter on 08 June 2026
Kyuu said:
Otter said:

You don't make a AAA licensed blockbuster with huge set pieces and expect it to sell poorly. There are not  modern examples of these games being made for much cheaper, especially not licensed ones.

Marvel Spiderman 2 was $300m to produce.


This was a calculated risk as is all games development and it's paid off brilliantly. I just think the framing of this being sold kind of blunder on IO interactive side is misjudgement on market realities 

Ghost of Yotei took about 5 years to develop and apparently only cost around $60 million. It's also a much longer game than 007 First Light.

Looking at 007 and Spider-Man 2's budgets, and EA giving FIFA the middle finger... I think licensing fees are just getting ridiculous. Naughty Dog is the joke of the decade (sorry!), Ubisoft is a mismanaged nightmare, and Santa Monica Studio is probably overspending on trivialities.

I don't think it's normal for a game of 007's scope to cost that much, and we don't even know for sure whether or not marketing and licensing are fully accounted for. Will they keep giving the IP owners a cut for every sale? We just don't know the nature of these contracts.

I believe Ghost of Yotei figure is it's production cost alone whereas James Bond includes marketing etc.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/007-first-light-officially-sells-27-million-copies-probably-at-three-million

He pushes back on previous reporting that the game had cost $200 million to make. That figure included "marketing, future [performance-related] bonuses and all those things," he says. "So it's less of an investment than that."

"We haven't completely recouped yet because there's a partnership as well, and royalties. But it's above all our dreams and expectations," he says. "It's going to be a massive, massive record for us and by all measures it's going to be a huge new success."

Beyond that Yotei is also a sequel and it's not a setpiece driven game.

For setpiece driven games entire new systems and engineering is needed to make the game work in different gameplay contexts/scenarios and simulations that last for 10-15minutes and then are never seen again. Lots of bespoke animations, simulations that aren't just part of a repeated template.

Length really isn't the major factor to be looking at. Once you've built an open world it's easy to populated it with recycled quests and hours consumed by the core gameplay loop.

Not to take anything from Yotei, it's a brilliant achievement but you are talking about games achieving very different things. DF also remarked on it that publishers have been avoiding Uncharted style single player games because they are both very hard to do but also very expensive/riske


Last edited by Otter - on 08 June 2026

Around the Network
Kyuu on 09 June 2026
Otter said:
Kyuu said:

Ghost of Yotei took about 5 years to develop and apparently only cost around $60 million. It's also a much longer game than 007 First Light.

Looking at 007 and Spider-Man 2's budgets, and EA giving FIFA the middle finger... I think licensing fees are just getting ridiculous. Naughty Dog is the joke of the decade (sorry!), Ubisoft is a mismanaged nightmare, and Santa Monica Studio is probably overspending on trivialities.

I don't think it's normal for a game of 007's scope to cost that much, and we don't even know for sure whether or not marketing and licensing are fully accounted for. Will they keep giving the IP owners a cut for every sale? We just don't know the nature of these contracts.

I believe Ghost of Yotei figure is it's production cost alone whereas James Bond includes marketing etc.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/007-first-light-officially-sells-27-million-copies-probably-at-three-million

He pushes back on previous reporting that the game had cost $200 million to make. That figure included "marketing, future [performance-related] bonuses and all those things," he says. "So it's less of an investment than that."

"We haven't completely recouped yet because there's a partnership as well, and royalties. But it's above all our dreams and expectations," he says. "It's going to be a massive, massive record for us and by all measures it's going to be a huge new success."

Beyond that Yotei is also a sequel and it's not a setpiece driven game.

For setpiece driven games entire new systems and engineering is needed to make the game work in different gameplay contexts/scenarios and simulations that last for 10-15minutes and then are never seen again. Lots of bespoke animations, simulations that aren't just part of a repeated template.

Length really isn't the major factor to be looking at. Once you've built an open world it's easy to populated it with recycled quests and hours consumed by the core gameplay loop.

Not to take anything from Yotei, it's a brilliant achievement but you are talking about games achieving very different things. DF also remarked on it that publishers have been avoiding Uncharted style single player games because they are both very hard to do but also very expensive/riske

There is no concrete evidence that games with setpieces inherently cost more to develop than larger open world games. They would logically only cost (a lot) more if the content and world size are similar.

Ghost of Tsushima which came out in 2020 didn't cost more to develop than Yotei even though it was a new IP. Sequels still take time and can cost a fortune to make. Tears of the Kingdom with a crap load recycling took 5-6 years to develop, coz all these new content and systems required a lot of time and resources. Ragnarok (sequel) cost 4-5x to make than GoW 2018 (which may as well be a new IP in terms of design). FF7 Rebirth didn't recycle the map of Remake, and it only needed just over 3 years. It's a feat alright.

I get it though, there is a lot we know nothing about and it's impossible to make a like for like comparison. TotK's team for example may have worked on many other projects vs FF7's team being more laser-focused on Rebirth immediately after Intertgrade's production ended, and on Revelation immediately after Rebirth.

Good to know marketing was included in the 007 budget, but it does seem like they have to pay royalties for every copy sold.



Kyuu on 21 August 2026
Otter said:
Kyuu said:

It isn't going to match Crimson Desert's trajectory. Crimson Desert held out super well on PC/Steam, 007 is already down to 7th place on Steam revenue charts just ahead of discounted Resident Evil 4 Remake (RE4 is selling 4-8x~ more in units at the moment).

For 007 to have a similar trajectory, it'll need to overperform on consoles. Anything is possible but I'd rather go with moderate expectations.

When talking about appealing to casuals, switch 2 release, gifting for the holidays etc for sure I'm talking about console sales. Plenty of games still lean heavily on console sales vs PC. (Hogwarts, COD, FIFA etc). James bond fits in with this.

Looking at the UK Chart Crimson Desert went from No.1 to No.5 in it's second week. James Bond however has remained at No.1 in its second week. It's an approximation but still reflective of a heavier console and mainstream leaning IMO. 

In any case I'm sure they'll update when they hit 5m etc so we'll see how front loaded it is before long 

It just hit 4 million...

The phenomenon that is GTA6 and heavy hitters like Wolverine will overshadow 007 in the holiday season as well. Even 6 million by year's end isn't guaranteed. 10 million isn't happening.



Conina on 21 August 2026

Especially on PC the sales of this games seem low so far (and it was even included/bundled with Nvidia GPUs in spring):

Concurrent players less than 8000 since July, less than 4000 since August, now ~2000:

Maybe a price cut can stop this trend and turn it around.



curl-6 on 21 August 2026

4 million in a little under 3 months isn't really bad at all, I feel like runaway viral successes have conditioned us to be less impressed with these kind of numbers.

Circana has it as the second highest selling game of the year to date in the US, and there's still the Switch 2 release to come.



Around the Network
Conina on 21 August 2026

Forget the low SteamSpy estimate... their tracking for 2026 titles doesn't seem to work anymore:

Forza Horizon 6 isn't even listed on SteamSpy...

Last edited by Conina - on 21 August 2026

DekutheEvilClown on 21 August 2026
Conina said:

Forget the low SteamSpy estimate... their tracking for 2026 titles doesn't seem to work anymore:

Forza Horizon 6 isn't even listed on SteamSpy...

Steam is not a strong platform generally for these types of third-person cinematic action-adventure games. Steam skews more towards Souls-likes, Action RPGs, “Gooner” content. Without those elements it just won’t be a strong platform for sales.



firebush03 on 21 August 2026
curl-6 said:

4 million in a little under 3 months isn't really bad at all, I feel like runaway viral successes have conditioned us to be less impressed with these kind of numbers.

Circana has it as the second highest selling game of the year to date in the US, and there's still the Switch 2 release to come.

Wait… are some actually saying 007 hasn’t performed well? Like you said, this is the second highest selling game in NA this year per Circana. Four million is very big, not many games hit this so quickly at a $70USD price tag. Especially when discounts have been nonexistent (I would know, I’ve been waiting for a discount to get this game for my bro).



Kyuu on 21 August 2026
firebush03 said:
curl-6 said:

4 million in a little under 3 months isn't really bad at all, I feel like runaway viral successes have conditioned us to be less impressed with these kind of numbers.

Circana has it as the second highest selling game of the year to date in the US, and there's still the Switch 2 release to come.

Wait… are some actually saying 007 hasn’t performed well? Like you said, this is the second highest selling game in NA this year per Circana. Four million is very big, not many games hit this so quickly at a $70USD price tag. Especially when discounts have been nonexistent (I would know, I’ve been waiting for a discount to get this game for my bro).

The context of my comment is me predicting it would sell 6-7 million by year's end, and Otter predicting 6 million as soon as July (and potentially 10 million by year's end).

The game sold well, but slowed down more than expected. It hit 2.7 million in a week, then added 1.3 million in the next 80~ days. For a $200 million licensed game, the results so far are good but nothing amazing, and that's okay.



ConciousMan on 21 August 2026

AAA games are the most risky and unprofitable type of investments corporations can make. Games like Diablo 4, Free to play GaaS, and online focused games are the future. Those can bring billions in revenue yearly, while keep becoming better overtime.