007 First Light, the Hitman dev's James Bond game, launches 2 months before GTA 6 with the Deluxe Edition as a pre-order bonus

We just got an extended eyeful of 007 First Light gameplay, and developer IO Interactive had one extra surprise at the end of it. We knew the game was launching sometime in 2026, but it's coming a whole lot sooner than you might have expected – in fact, we're getting the James Bond game before GTA 6.

007: First Light launches on March 27, 2026 across PS5, Xbox Series X, Switch 2, and PC. Pre-orders will get you 24 hours of early access, as well as a free upgrade to the Deluxe Edition with a handful of extra skins. (I guess that makes it less of a Deluxe Edition and more of a pre-order bonus that you can pay for later.)

That Deluxe Edition includes four "exclusive outfits," offering Bond a pair of casual looks, a Naval officer uniform, and a skeleton suit channeling that Day of the Dead look from Spectre. There's also a pistol weapon skin, and a "gleaming pack" giving Bond a gold-plated phone, pen, lighter, and, uh, wireless earbuds. Look, I guess a modern 007 has to listen to his tunes somehow. I wonder how he feels about the Beatles?

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The new gameplay footage, which you can see above, certainly suggests that IO is building on the base it created with Hitman, but there are far more robust action mechanics and character interactions than we've seen in Agent 47's missions. IO CEO Hakan Abrak says his goal is to make an all-timer James Bond game, even if the result is "very different" to Hitman, but it seems IO fans will have some familiar systems to play with.

For the Hitman devs, 007: First Light felt like "coming home" because James Bond has been an "inspiration" for so long.