UPDATE: Following the original story this morning, Amazon Game Studios reached out to Gamereactor with a statement clarifying that while the studio does hold the rights to James Bond, nothing is confirmed regarding a 007 First Light sequel yet.
"Amazon MGM holds the rights to any future James Bond video games but it's still too early to discuss future projects. We have a great relationship with IO Interactive and are proud of what we've accomplished together on 007 First Light. Our partners at IO will reveal more about 007 First Light in the near future and we're looking forward to sharing what's next," reads the statement.
The original story can be read below:
007 First Light's sequels will have a new publisher. IO Interactive, the developer and publisher of the first game, has already made it clear it plans to make at least a trilogy of James Bond games, and with the reported success of their 007 debut, we wouldn't be surprised to see work starting on the next game right away.
From now on, though, we'll see 007 titles published by Amazon Games, if there are any to be confirmed following the first. This shouldn't surprise anyone, as Amazon does hold the rights to the James Bond IP. The only reason they didn't publish the first game was because that deal hadn't yet gone through.
"We did not [make First Light]. We do have a stake in it because we now own the IP, but that IP acquisition happened after the First Light IO deal was already done," said Amazon Games boss Jeff Gattis in an interview with Polygon.
Gattis sees this as a big opportunity to expand the reach of 007 media, integrating video games and movies and TV. "That line is becoming much more blurry. We think that's a real opportunity for us to create IP that extends — or kind of expands upon — TV shows and movies," he said.
Amazon has big plans with crossovers between movies and games. A Tomb Raider show is planned for release alongside the new video games, and there's of course the massive success of the Fallout show, too. Now, we're just hoping to hear more about the cinematic plans for the next James Bond venture. Perhaps thanks to his role as Bond in First Light, Patrick Gibson has earned himself a shot at the live-action role, too.