Update: While the documentary talks about a new Hitman, documentary Noclip founder Danny O’Dwyer tweeted that the documentary never stated a third Hitman game was in development. It only said that it was planned and that an episodic model was being considered. The documentary only confirmed it was making something new.
Original story: While IO Interactive continues to update Hitman 2 with more DLC, it seems that the studio is quietly working on some new games as well. The studio has seemingly confirmed that it is working on a new Hitman game.
The confirmation comes from the new “Fall & Rise of Hitman” documentary from YouTube channel Noclip. While the documentary focuses on IO Interactive and its work on Hitman following the 2017 split with Square Enix, it eventually does make mention of the third Hitman game near the end when the team details its recently opened Swedish branch.
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According comments made by IO Interactive CEO Hakan B. Abrak within the documentary, the third Hitman game may return the franchise to an episodic structure. He then explained how this would contribute to the overarching “World of Assassination” as the titles would be one cohesive world after referring to it as a trilogy. Abrak didn’t outright say it was being made right now, but talked about it as a more conceptual game.
“The World of Assassination, when that is complete, it is going to be one game with all the locations starting from Paris in Hitman 1 to the last location in Hitman 3 with 20 plus locations,” he said.
For those who missed out on it, 2016’s Hitman featured an episodic structure. IO released the episodes for it between March 2016 and October 2016. However, it eventually released all of the episodes together as part of the Hitman: The Complete First Season pack in February of the following year.
While a new Hitman game sounds exciting, the studio apparently isn’t focusing entirely on a new release. The documentary reveals that most of IO Interactive’s staff at the main office in Copenhagen are working on a secret project. With that said, the documentary does not go into any further detail on this project aside from the fact that it is “something new.”
This new project from IO Interactive represents the first non-Hitman game from the studio since 2010, when it released Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days. Since then, IO has spent an entire decade working only on Hitman games. This was mostly due to then-parent company Square Enix having the studio focus solely on the Hitman franchise. Now, with its newfound independence since the split, it seems that the studio is ready to start experimenting beyond its iconic stealth franchise once again.
