BBC goes behind the scenes at 007 First Light score recording

James Bond’s return to gaming is being sold as much through sound as through action. At a London recording session, conductor Matt Dunkley led the London Chamber Orchestra’s brass section through a score for 007 First Light that had to deliver suspense, nostalgia and franchise identity in just 32 minutes of music.

The scale of the session points to how far blockbuster games now mirror major film productions. The score is being written by The Flight, the duo of Alexis Smith and Joe Henson, who said they had spent two years working on it from their east London studio before the orchestra was brought in. Smith said modern software orchestral instruments made it possible to build the music before the live session, turning the recording date into the final pass of a much longer cinematic process.

IO Interactive is using the soundtrack to help define a reimagined Bond origin story in which players follow a young, sometimes reckless James Bond as he works toward earning his 00 status. The game’s title sequence and title song were unveiled at the BAFTA Game Awards in London on April 17, 2026, with Lana Del Rey performing the song she wrote and composed with David Arnold, whose involvement marks a return to the Bond franchise. IO Interactive says the soundtrack is being explored in the fourth episode of its Beyond the Light series, featuring interviews with Missions and Audio Director Dominic Vega and The Flight.

The game is set to launch on May 27, 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, with a Summer 2026 release planned for Nintendo Switch 2. IO Interactive describes 007 First Light as a third-person action-adventure built around stealth and action mechanics, with settings that move from MI6 in London to Slovakia, Malta, Iceland, Mauritania, Kensington in England, Vietnam and Antarctica. That sweep of locations reinforces the studio’s cinematic ambition, and the music has to keep pace across every chase, infiltration and reveal.

The project arrives after more than 13 years without a major Bond game, since 007 Legends in 2012. For IO Interactive, the score is not decoration but part of the franchise machinery, a cue that the series is being rebuilt for a new generation with the same precision once reserved for the films.