IO Interactive has announced that Hitman World of Assassination is getting cross-platform progression thanks to a new incarnation of its own account system – IOI Account. The account system has a fresh new look and can be configured through browser and mobile. While the account system is now live, cross-progression, however, is still a few days away, slated for release in Hitman World of Assassination across all platforms on February 3.
“Since the release of Hitman World of Assassination, it has been our wish to enable this feature for players to be able to carry on their in-game progression, whatever the device you play on, and even more so since Hitman WOA is now playable on more than 10 different platforms,” wrote the company in its announcement. “Whether you’re switching from console to PC, playing on multiple devices, or changing to a new platform, your progression will now follow you, from the 3rd of February onwards, no matter where you choose to play.”
Cross-progression will allow players to carry their experience, player level, challenges, location mastery, unlocks and inventory, achievements/trophies, Freelancer mode progression, and Campaign Story progress over between different platforms. To access the feature, players will have to link their platform’s accounts to their IOI account. Doing so allows players to pick one of their platforms as their “primary progression profile,” with progression on other platforms following the primary one.
While player progress will be carried over, however, it is worth noting that things that need purchasing, like the game itself, and DLCs and DLC-based unlocks, will not be part of cross-progression. The studio has also warned players that, once the feature is live, old game saves created on a non-primary linked account won’t be loadable while cross-progression is enabled. The saves can be accessed if the feature is disabled, however.
As a side effect of bringing in cross-progression, IO Interactive has also announced that it is shutting down its Hitman 2 to Hitman 3 carryover feature. This, the studio noted, is due to data integrity and potential conflicts between legacy progression systems that could arise with the newer progression systems in Hitman World of Assassination.
While it has continued support for Hitman World of Assassination with a host of Elusive Targets, including one related to Bruce Lee and another featuring rap artist Eminem, IO Interactive has also been working on its next game—007: First Light. Being developed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2, the James Bond game is set for release on May 27.
While 007: First Light might be a hotly-anticipated title, IO Interactive has also said that it will work on more Hitman games in the future. CEO Hakan Abrak referred to Hitman as the studio’s “flagship game,” and noted that Bond is the only licensed IP that the studio has been working on.
“We’ve created other original IPs from the ground up — ‘Bond’ is actually the only external, licensed IP that we’re working on,” he said. “And I would say that’s probably the only IP we will work on externally that is not ours. Somehow, it kind of made sense after 25 years of rehearsing for the agent fantasy and doing ‘007.’ That was a match made in heaven, you could say. But there’s no doubt ‘Hitman’ has been our flagship game, our long love for all the time IO Interactive has existed.”
