Whereas IO Interactive has been arduous at work on numerous initiatives, together with creating 007: First Mild and publishing the upcoming MindsEye, CEO Hakan Abrak has insisted that the studio is “undoubtedly not completed” with the Hitman franchise. In an interview with IGN, Abrak mentioned that, whereas the studio’s assets and time have been taken up by different initiatives, we will certainly see extra Hitman sooner or later.
“The Hitman collection is certainly not completed,” Abrak mentioned. “We’re not completed with Hitman. IO has been synonymous with Hitman, regardless of the opposite IPs we’ve got completed. We completely are proud, grateful, and pleased with Hitman. However clearly doing one other new IP, Challenge Fantasy, and doing Bond, it takes numerous our assets 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 possibly in several shapes, however they’ll undoubtedly be extra Hitman sooner or later.”
Within the meantime, nevertheless, the studio’s precedence has been on creating 007: First Mild. When requested concerning the variations between the upcoming James Bond sport and Hitman, Abrak talked about that the upcoming title will nonetheless keep a number of the comedy that may be present in Agent 47’s adventures. He did point out, nevertheless, that Bond’s sense of humour will likely be extra British when in comparison with what we usually see within the Hitman video games.
“It is rather, crucial to get the humor proper,” explaiend Abrak. “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’s to help the vitality and his character, which is far more entrance and middle. So I’d say much less foolish. It’s not flamingo disguises, as you mentioned, however nonetheless entertaining.”
Abrak additionally spoke about a number of the gameplay variations we’ll see in 007: First Mild when coming from Hitman. He talked about that there will likely be extra motion, as an illustration, fairly than the social stealth we get to see when put into the sneakers of Agent 47. Nevertheless, whereas there’s emphasis on motion, we are going to nonetheless see the extra systems-based gameplay that IO Interactive is understood for.
“And it’s a sport that performs otherwise,” he mentioned. “It’s emphasizing extra motion, for certain. And the construction of Bond is extra prefer it’s respiratory extra. Like there are extra linear components the place you may have the spectacle moments and unique autos. After which we additionally give area in Bond to open up a bit and breathe a bit. So you may have undoubtedly glimpses of IO Interactive, as you’d know from Hitman video games as effectively, but it surely’s extra entrance foot. It’s much less of an analytical thoughts, chess play, the place you sit and meticulously plan. All of the clockwork issues in Hitman the place in case you do that or do that, the place Bond is extra impulsive, extra reckless typically. It’s extra like he’s simply taking issues and performing and dealing with it extra as they come up.”
“So it’s a unique dynamism, as a result of we need to make one thing that feels true for a Bond fantasy. So it’s undoubtedly not a re-skin of a Hitman sort of factor, however I really feel that individuals will see IO Interactive, that may be a sport made by Interactive, however they may also see that this sport is one thing else. It’s one thing that’s true to what we’re hopefully going to ship 360, an final Bond expertise.”
007: First Mild lately bought a brand new trailer showcasing a few of its gameplay. It’s being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Collection X/S, and will likely be out in 2026.
