007: First Mild. Venture Fantasy. MindsEye. IO Interactive has rather a lot happening within the coming days, months, and years. However one key franchise of theirs has been conspicuously quiet: Hitman.
It isn’t that IOI is doing nothing with Hitman — it did just announce that a co-op mode is in the works for the video games and Mads Mikkelsen will reprise his iconic On line casino Royale function as an Elusive Goal. However as for brand spanking new Hitman video games, the franchise has formally been on hiatus since 2023. Updates apart, it looks like IOI is likely to be getting a contact too busy to offer Agent 47 extra main work.
So I requested Hakan Abrak, CEO of IO Interactive, if that was the case once we sat down for an interview this previous weekend following the reveal of 007: First Mild. And he reassured me that Agent 47 was nonetheless on energetic responsibility.
“The Hitman collection is unquestionably not carried out,” Abrak stated. “We’re not carried out with Hitman. IO has been synonymous with Hitman, regardless of the opposite IPs we now have carried out. We completely are proud, grateful, and pleased with Hitman. However clearly doing one other new IP, Venture Fantasy, and doing Bond, it takes a variety of our sources and time. However as you noticed, we introduced the Hitman co-op, which is a giant dream of mine. And they are going to be perhaps in numerous shapes, however they may positively be extra Hitman sooner or later.”
My query to Abrak was sparked by our prior dialogue of the variations between Agent 47 and James Bond. Although IO Interactive’s espionage pedigree is definitely what led to the studio being trusted with the Bond license [to kill], the 2 heroes are fairly completely different in observe. Bond leans extra towards motion, with Agent 47 preferring stealth and disguise. And whereas Bond definitely has a cultured humorousness, the Hitman video games are famend for being… properly, fairly foolish! Agent 47 clothes up in a flamingo mascot swimsuit at one level, for Pete’s sake.
So will 007: First Mild nonetheless have that Hitman taste? Sure, stated Abrak, however it can have a tone all its personal.
“It is extremely, crucial to get the humor proper. In Denmark, we love darkish humor and the silliness as a result of it takes away from the seriousness of being an murderer. Bond is completely different. Bond, the humor is to start with very British. And the humor there may be to help the vitality and his character, which is rather more entrance and heart. So I’d say much less foolish. It isn’t flamingo disguises, as you stated, however nonetheless entertaining.”
Abrak continued: “And it is a recreation that performs in a different way. It is emphasizing extra motion, for positive. And the construction of Bond is extra prefer it’s respiratory extra. Like there are extra linear elements the place you have got the spectacle moments and unique automobiles. After which we additionally give house in Bond to open up a bit and breathe a bit. So you have got positively glimpses of IO Interactive, as you’ll know from Hitman video games as properly, but it surely’s extra entrance foot. It is much less of an analytical thoughts, chess play, the place you sit and meticulously plan. All of the clockwork issues in Hitman the place when you do that or do that, the place Bond is extra impulsive, extra reckless generally. It is extra like he is simply taking issues and performing and dealing with it extra as they come up.
“So it is a completely different dynamism, as a result of we wish to make one thing that feels true for a Bond fantasy. So it is positively not a re-skin of a Hitman form of factor, however I really feel that individuals will see IO Interactive, that could be a recreation made by Interactive, however they may even see that this recreation is one thing else. It is one thing that is true to what we’re hopefully going to ship 360, an final Bond expertise.”
We’ll be publishing our full interview with Abrak later this week, together with dialogue of not simply Hitman, but additionally 007: First Mild and upcoming IO Interactive-published recreation MindsEye.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Yow will discover her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Obtained a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.