An understandable move, given that the Danish studio currently has two significant projects in the pipeline.

We’ve heard about Project 007 for over two years since IO Interactive and MGM, now part of Amazon confirmed in November 2020 that the studio would be making a James Bond game adaptation starring the young agent. Another project, Project Dragon, an online fantasy RPG, joined this year. So that’s two games, and there’s not much room for three, so someone has to take a break. It’ll be Agent 47, which means they don’t have the time or resources for a new major episode of Hitman for a little while.

IO Interactive’s co-owner and chief creative officer Christian Elverdam confirmed during the Eurogamer Podcasts that we shouldn’t expect a new Hitman installment anytime soon: “Right now, obviously, as a major new Hitman game, that’s a little bit on hiatus as we’re building another agent fantasy that’s also taking up a lot of our time. But obviously, we’ll come back to our beloved Agent 47. He’s still very much in the heart of this company, so I think, and I hope, we can have our cake and eat it, too. Since we have such a wonderful platform, we can keep experimenting with what the formula can do and what people expect. And then, at some point, as any creative, it would be nice to go in and say, ‘Okay, with everything we’ve learned, what would that be if we had to re-articulate a sandbox? What would Hitman look like? I think that’s a super interesting question as well.”

He then discussed Project 007: “There’s not much we can disclose right now because we’re working on it. I think we can say a few things. It’s extremely inspiring to work with the people who are behind everything Bond. From my perspective, I’ve been used to defending Agent 47. People want to do things with our franchise, and you feel that stewardship. Obviously, for them, that is their role in the Bond franchise, so for us, it’s been about finding a mutual understanding of what James Bond is about. As we talked about, we’re doing an origin because…To show the trust they have instilled in us is that we were allowed to build a James Bond for the games, which I think is a profound homage to where our industry is and where the medium is in the sense that, yes, it’s time to have a James Bond character who was not a movie character but who’s comfortably just his game character. Earning that trust has been humbling, and we feel honored. […] The journey we’re on right now is trying to understand… On the one hand, I think we can safely say we’re very good at the agent fantasy with everything we’ve learned with our Hitman franchise, and now we’re kind of rediscovering new sides of the agent fantasy with James Bond.”

Since Hitman III is now called Hitman: World of Assassination, incorporating the first two parts of the reboot trilogy, feel free to move on to something else.

Source: WCCFTech