Whereas IO Interactive has been arduous at work on a variety of tasks, together with creating 007: First Gentle and publishing the upcoming MindsEye, CEO Hakan Abrak has insisted that the studio is “undoubtedly not achieved” 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 tasks, we will certainly see extra Hitman sooner or later.
“The Hitman sequence is unquestionably not achieved,” Abrak mentioned. “We’re not achieved with Hitman. IO has been synonymous with Hitman, regardless of the opposite IPs we’ve achieved. We completely are proud, grateful, and pleased with Hitman. However clearly doing one other new IP, Venture Fantasy, and doing Bond, it takes quite a lot of 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 perhaps in numerous 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 Gentle. When requested in regards to the variations between the upcoming James Bond recreation and Hitman, Abrak talked about that the upcoming title will nonetheless preserve 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 might be extra British when in comparison with what we usually see within the Hitman video games.
“It is vitally, essential 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 totally different. Bond, the humor is initially very British. And the humor there’s to assist the vitality and his persona, which is rather more entrance and middle. So I might 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 Gentle when coming from Hitman. He talked about that there might be extra motion, as an example, somewhat 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 thought for.
“And it’s a recreation that performs in a different way,” he mentioned. “It’s emphasizing extra motion, for positive. And the construction of Bond is extra prefer it’s respiration extra. Like there are extra linear components the place you might have the spectacle moments and unique automobiles. After which we additionally give area in Bond to open up a bit and breathe a bit. So you might 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 for those who 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 distinct dynamism, as a result of we wish 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 folks will see IO Interactive, that may be a recreation made by Interactive, however they may even see that this recreation 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 Gentle just lately received a brand new trailer showcasing a few of its gameplay. It’s being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Collection X/S, and might be out in 2026.
