I don’t see the point of populated the video with fake brands : like the excavator in Codename 47 : everybody know it’s a CAT (even if it is written CAP). Theses kind of things get me out of oeuvre, while i’m here asking “whait its not a CAP but a CAT”, “why you did that?”, “I’m not stupid you know”.
Video game are more realist and immersive with real brand than fake one, say no to the hypocrisy to see a “CAP” logo with the same fond “CAT” instead at true CAT logo. The real world is populated with real brand, so the virtual should also, even if not to do publicity to them but for pure background reason.
The hypocrisy, in some country, of bluring brands (or add piece of tape that everybody see) on some product who randomly appears to be on screen on TV emission is already enough cancer of our time for the world.
Like when you watch this scene of this Korean TV show: as a spectator you are bother they hide the Mercedes logo because you remark they did it like the nose in the middle of the face, while you would had not complain/problem at all to see it. Beside since everybody know/reconize it is a Mercedes, it’s useless and rather hypocritical.
The problem of Bond placement product is not the brand themselve, but the number of their products that appear in screen. The next Bond film will feature at least 4 models of Aston Martin and 4 model of Range Rover. While these brands were heavly present in the precedent movie. Too much. A good product placement is a product placement who is not too much visible to the point of harm the oeuvre. Their overpresence not deserve No Time To Die.
So the good formula will be to have Aston Martin in a mission, but other brands in other. Every car Bond drive or encounter shouldn’t be Aston one, otherwise your product placement is obvious and disturbing. We can take two exemples : Bond video game Everything or nothing (a Aston, but also a Porsche, a rally car : no player complained of Aston presence), and Blood Stone (Aston, Aston and Aston, at the point of creating inconsistency in the plot with like of “while he trying to ran away forrom Bond, the villain entered in a random car seller shop which, as if by chance, is a Aston Martin one who, as if by chance, is the brand that had been featured in so many Bond movie”).
(Beside if we talk of cars, considering the game will be an origin story, Bond shouldn’t even drive an Aston but a Bentley instead).
I hope you are aware that brands in media are always about costs.
Ideally you get paid to place a product you want to use if the manufactor wants to be in there.
In terms of cars that usually means:
Make our car be the best car, it should be faster, more cool, and so on
Don’t damage our car
The more you move away from that, the less you get paid or the more you have to pay. License costs can go up really quickly.
If you want many car manufactors, that will result in higher production costs. Not only because you have to do contracts with multiple of them but also because the deal is less attractive for each manufactor. Unless you make up the car models.
I think GTA did good at this, the cars were not full copies but changed or even mixed variations of existing cars. That is the advantage of games compared to movies. You can easily make up a fully original car in virtual than in real or in CGI with a dummy car for filming.
So I assume a good way here would be to only include Aston Martin as the classic Bond car, and all other cars are made up models that don’t rival with Aston Martin in real life or can be the ones we see damaged or wracked.
Yes there is big money behind, but that doesn’t change the fact that Bond fans are tired the see 4 Aston & 4 Jaguar/Land Rover in each Bond movie since Skyfall. Maybe an overuse product placement/brand save money, but it decreases the quality of the movies (even if you can spend the saved money to increase the quality of the movie since yout budget is bigger ; but maybe also you would had earned almost the same with 5 little contract with 5 different brand than in a big contract with only one brand).
I like when Bond film/book/game suprise me by using a brand that I never saw associated before with Bond. It’s a fresh change always welcomed.
I can’t stand when they blur things like the Mercedes logo. They aren’t doing it bc Mercedes asked them to blur it, they are doing it bc Mercedes won’t pay whatever amount they want in order to not blur it. The whole thing is ridiculous. Like we said, we all know it’s a Mercedes. While I understand product placement, the blurring of products that happen to be in shows is a step too far IMO.
As I said the proportions are likely in reverse. The less prominent a product is placed, the less a manufactor is willing to pay or the more you have to pay. So what you want is likely more expensive. “Smaller contracts” is only true to manufactors who are desperate to be even recognized in (western) public, like Dacia.
To go away from the money matter a bit, I am confident this game won’t result into Aston Martin porn but actually a decent game that features the known models. I think IO has proven that they are able to be progressive about IP characteristics if we look at how Hitman changed over time.
They don’t need to focus that much on cars to make it a good Bond game. Even more with the nature of a game where the player’s actions take much of the player’s attention.
Yes. But after we can hope (sure lot of brand would like to be in a James Bond game/movie). Like you said, as long it is not an full “Aston Martin porn”, it should do. Beside the core of the gameplay will probably be on foot.
But it’s a thing I have noticed, the most visibles products placements in movie/show seems always be cars.
Yes I can’t imagine they license other things as cars. The next more known object associated with Bond are weapons, but it seems to be a trend in the game industry to just not do deals with gun manufactors anymore. Also because these too try to get the image of “tools of murder” a bit off their vest.
EON has a long running product placement with Omega for Bonds watch. I’m not sure if that has ever filtered over to the games or if it’s only in the films. What’s really funny about it is that the watch save screen in Goldeneye would have been a wonderful way to show the watch more, and the devs made it look like the omega, but it wasn’t product placement so it’s just a look alike
I have to imagine there will be product placement for financial purposes, but also for Bondian purposes as well. There are a number of brands associated with Bond that would seem strange if they replaced them with “no-names”/generic instead.
Going on the game itself. Did a Bond marathon 2 weekends ago, and after seeing about 10 Bond films through the various eras, I realized the following:
Gameplay of Hitman really does not fit with Bond
Bond RARELY goes into “stealth mode” like 47 does either socially or through “traditional” stealth means
Bond isn’t a “Silent Assassin.” He’s a loud one. Shootouts galore.
Bond, while he does some assassination work, is more of a spy and less an assassin
Bond has A LOT of action set pieces whether they’re escapes, fight sequences, etc.
While 47 is a mystery, for the most part Bond is not. Sure, there are moments where Bond is “hiding in plain sight,” but normally? Everyone knows who he is and what he does.
So while I agree that WoA Hitman did take some cues from Bond. These characters - and I have to imagine the game - will be different. I cannot see IOI simply doing a “reskin of Hitman” as Bond 007. This wouldn’t fit the character of Bond - at all.
So, IMHO, where IOI needs work:
Gunplay while decent in WoA Hitman, needs to dramatically improve
How will IOI portray action and chase/escape stuff? (Remember, this is what MOST folks think of with Bond - besides the Bond girls).
Things that Hitman can be expanded in Project 007:
NPC unique dialogue used to expand the story and world building (WoA did an amazing job with this, Bond game should and could definitely take cues)
Insert the “openness” of Hitman somehow into Bond. This would be a unique twist to all previous Bond games (besides maybe Goldeneye). If there’s anything that Hitman could bring to Bond is the “replayability” aspect of the game.
he strolls into innumerable parties or games of baccarat or whatever and introduces himself. that’d fit hitman’s social aspects. he definitely sneaks around traditionally too.
no way, it’s the other way around; he murders the bad guy in every film and rarely only relays information back to base.
there’s a reason people think io is a perfect fit.
Agreed, but there’s usually only one scene of this nature in a given Bond fillm versus many action/chase sequences. Also, he’s not in disguise, and Bond is barely hiding the fact that he’s a “secret agent.” Additionally, the folks in world seems to be “in on the joke” as well. They all “know” who he is and winks at it. This is not at all true for 47. The “sneaky” Bond is any Bond film is few a far between. Watch any Bond film - stealthing doesn’t really happen a whole lot at all.
He does, but assisnation is not the sole thing Bond is about - nor is it always necessary (of course films gear it so that Bond does kill the “big bad” at the end.) What I’m trying to say is that the focus for Bond isn’t assasination like 47’s is. Bond’s endgame is to “end whatever crisis is in the story,” the killing of a “big bad” is an outcome of his goal, but not the goal itself.
I’m not saying that aspects of Hitman wouldn’t work with Bond. Not at all. What I am saying is that so many takes on IOI’s Project 007 is “reskinning Hitman with Bond.” To me that neither does justice to Bond or 47 at all.
sure. i’d be surprised if io simply transplant bond pacing directly on to a hitman framework without any changes and expect it to die— i mean, work. do people genuinely think otherwise…?
absolutely and i reckon that’ll be fun to play. that will be - fingers crossed - what differs them. maybe i’m way off, but i’m not really going in expecting bond to ‘be’ 47 (or vice versa). i think they’ll just crib what works.
which won’t be the gunplay. hopefully.
man, bond is always sneaking into bases. no one said he was any good at it.
everybody he’s sent to spy on dies horribly. at this point, it’s either his profession or a goddamn pathology.
takes aren’t worth much at this point. especially mine.
I’m gonna double down on my guess that Bonds omega will appear in the game bc I was checking out the omega website and they seem to have pumped up the volume for the new film. Money Penny and a character called Nomi will also be wearing omega watches alongside James in the new film.
Imagine a sort of system similar to Metal Gear Solid 5 where there is a hub world where you can do upgrades and change wardrobe (i.e. London (also, fingers crossed for customizable wardrobe)) and you use various methods to go to different missions with side missions for various, recognizable, characters around London. Also, I want ioi to use the idea of Project 007 to the point where you get to customize your own agent and they are the new 007. If they don’t go this direction, I really want to see Idris Elba be the Bond “actor” for the game. I’m excited for the game!!!
It seems my original Hitman Forum post was previously shared on the “M16 Community Forum”, and then someone else took it from there and posted it to the Project 007 subreddit!
I’m glad my work was shared more widely. It’s nice to know even more people were able to see my speculations beyond this forum! And I’m pleasantly surprised to have received credit even after being shared two times over from my original Hitman Forum post.
Admittedly, this is pretty tenuous speculation, but there’s a new IOI video about the Barcelona studio which begins with Eduard (studio head) listing the projects they are working on:
“Hitman, James Bond and another yet-to-announce project”
Given that Project 007 is going to be an origin story, is is possible that ‘James Bond’ is the actual title of the game? Did Eduard inadvertently give it away without anyone noticing?
Probably not. It’s more likely he just means “the James Bond game” in the same way people talk of “the new James Bond movie”. But I felt like sharing this anyway.
