Fancy a proper look at IO Interactive’s James Bond game before spending a penny on it? As of this week, PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers can play the first hour of 007 First Light free — and with Black Friday discounts stacking on top, it may be the cheapest route yet into one of 2026’s best-reviewed games.
The trial went live on 3 November as part of PlayStation’s Game Trials programme. It arrives at a moment when holiday-season attention is split between the season’s blockbusters — Grand Theft Auto 6 dominates the conversation — making a free taste of Bond a smart play for IO Interactive as it tries to pull lapsed players back for the festive run.
What’s in the One-Hour 007 First Light Trial?
The trial starts at the very beginning of the campaign, so there’s no dropping into the middle of the story cold. One hour should see players through the entire prologue mission, Against the Odds, with enough time left over to sample The Needle’s Eye, the training mission that follows.
Those training sections punch above their weight. IGN’s coverage calls them “quite fun and inventive for a video game tutorial” — a chance to grip how the game plays and to judge IO Interactive’s origin-story take on Bond, gadgets, guns and all. It is also a window into the studio’s signature design: patiently paced, simulation-heavy stealth where improvisation beats scripted heroics.
Crucially, progress and trophies carry over if you buy the full game, so nothing in that hour is wasted. Finish the prologue in the trial, pick the game up on Black Friday, and you resume exactly where you left off — trophies intact.
Premium Only, Despite the Wording
One caveat worth knowing: the official announcement post claims the trial is open to “all PlayStation Plus members”. That isn’t quite true. Game Trials live exclusively on the Premium tier — and its Deluxe equivalent in some regions — so Essential and Extra subscribers won’t find 007 First Light in their library.
Key point: The 007 First Light trial requires PlayStation Plus Premium. Progress and trophies carry over into the full game if you buy it.
Premium is the most expensive tier of Sony’s subscription service, bundling the Game Trials library with classic catalogue titles and cloud streaming. For players who only subscribe to Essential for online play, the trial alone won’t justify an upgrade — but anyone already on Premium has an hour of Bond waiting at no extra cost.
Black Friday Makes Upgrading Cheap
The timing is deliberate. From 4 November, the Deluxe Edition of 007 First Light joins the PlayStation Store’s Black Friday promotion, and the standard edition is already discounted by 40 per cent — bringing it down to roughly $42. PC players have their own seasonal window too, with the Steam Autumn Sale following later this month.
Trial-then-discount is a proven funnel, and First Light has the reviews to convert fence-sitters. The game holds a 9 out of 10 from IGN, which praised it as “a smart yet faithful evolution of the beloved spy franchise”, noting that IO Interactive found “a highly successful home for the more curated action-stealth formula of 2012’s Hitman: Absolution”. The review verdict: “brimming with Bond’s trinity of gadgets, guns, and girls in a way that feels fresh but reverent, and never like parody.”
What IO Interactive Has Planned Next
Commercially, the game is already a hit, with more than four million copies sold as of August 2026 — numbers that will climb through the holiday season, particularly if it features in end-of-year awards conversations.
Support continues too. IO Interactive has shipped free post-launch updates designed to give players reasons to revisit, and a new story DLC is planned before the end of the year. Nintendo Switch 2 owners get their turn in March 2027, when the game is ported to the handheld-home hybrid.
To try it now, open the PlayStation Store on your PS5, find 007 First Light, and select the Game Trial — one hour on the clock, licence to try.
