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Welcome to IGN Unfiltered, our regularly occurring interview series where we sit down with the best, brightest, and most fascinating minds in the video game industry. (Catch up on the other 50-plus episodes here.) My guest this episode is IO Interactive CEO and co-owner Hakan Abrak, who talks very openly and honestly about running a AAA independent game studio in the modern era. He discusses leaving Square Enix to go it alone and how the studio almost ran out of money at one point, how the studio landed the James Bond game deal and how the team is thinking about it, the future of Hitman, and much more!

Check out the full episode in the video above, but if you’d prefer to listen to the 75-minute interview, here’s an audio-only podcast download link. One way or the other I hope you’ll check out the interview! Below is a clip, in which Abrak talks a bit about the inspiration the team is drawing from for its upcoming 007 game:

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And if you missed it, here’s the previous episode of Unfiltered, in which ex-Halo developers Jaime Griesemer and Peter Tamte candidly discuss their resurrection of the controversial “playable documentary” military shooter, Six Days in Fallujah:

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Catch up on every episode of IGN Unfiltered here, including conversations with Bethesda game director Todd Howard, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, former PlayStation boss Jack Tretton, Journey creator Jenova Chen, Halo boss Bonnie Ross, and many more!

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Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

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