IO Interactive Boss Confirms Hitman 4 Coming After 007 Fi...

Great News For Hitman Fans: Hitman 4 Coming After 007 First Light

The back of Agent 47's head in Hitman 3, showing the barcode tattooed there.

By Kyle Gratton Published 11 minutes ago Kyle Gratton is an editor and writer based out of Kansas City. He received a bachelor's degree, dual majoring in English and History with a minor in Film and Media Studies, and has been a senior staff writer and reviewer for Screen Rant's Gaming section since 2021, with roles in editorial, and various freelance projects. A terminal Midwesterner who graduated from the University of Kansas, Kyle also has knowledge and interest in literature, film, film adaptions of literature, and history. Find Kyle on Bluesky: kwg.bsky.social and Letterboxd: KyleG5 Sign in to your ScreenRant account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

Hitman developer IO Interactive has stepped further into the limelight now that it's working on the James Bond franchise with its upcoming 007 First Light, but the studio's CEO has promised that Agent 47 isn't quite ready for retirement. IOI hasn't been coy about Hitman's influence on 007 (and vice versa), but as World of Assassination support continues with an Eminem collaboration and an upcoming co-op mode, it was starting to become unclear if Hitman 4 was in the cards.

"Of course there will be more Hitman," IOI CEO Hakan Abrak told Variety. Development for the franchise is currently focused on WOA's co-op update, "But we will, after that, be talking about the next Hitman – because, of course, there's going to be a next Hitman," Abrak said. He explained that the recent Hitman trilogy has seen unprecedented success for the franchise: "We have had more than 85 million gamers play [World of Assassination], and we have north of 25 million copies sold. Every month, we have more than a million people playing Hitman consistently."

IO Interactive CEO Confirms Hitman 4 Is On The Way

Abrak's comments will be some solace for fans who were worried about the uncertainty surrounding Hitman 4 – or whatever the next game in the series will be called. The World of Assassination trilogy, which restarted the series' numbering, but are the sixth, seventh, and eighth mainline titles, is now one self-contained package, and IOI discussed how the series' evolution is part of both its appeal and identity.

With Absolution, "we wanted to experiment with a different format of the gameplay," level designer Jacob Mikkelsen told Variety, "now we know how to do better mechanics, better AI, better controls, better camera, better shooting, better on a lot of things." These gameplay elements were then combined with the more traditional Hitman sandbox nature of Absolution's predecessor, Blood Money, and "made up this new foundation that we could work on" in the latest trilogy.

Concrete examples of how the next Hitman game will iterate on World of Assassination weren't given. Abrak may have confirmed a new Hitman game, but IO Interactive appears to have its hands full for the time being.

Don’t Expect A New Hitman Game Anytime Soon

The studio has "three main productions," at the moment, according to Abrak. First is 007 First Light, which launches in March 2026. IOI's attention will then turn to World of Assassination's co-op update, more news about which will come after the start of the year. As previously mentioned, this appears to be the point at which Hitman 4 discussions will start. This indicates that the next Hitman game is in very early pre-production, if it's even being actively worked on at all yet.

Another hurdle that needs to be overcome before the next Hitman game is also Project Fantasy, the working title for "a multiplayer fantasy project, which is extremely ambitious and really cool and is something else than a gun in a suit" coming out of IO Interactive. Abrak discussed Project Fantasy when asked about the studio's slate for the coming year, so it seems like it is currently going to be IOI's next major release following 007 First Light, which would put it ahead of the new Hitman as well.

Hitman World of Assassination

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Stealth Action Adventure Systems PC-1

OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 85/100 Critics Rec: 91% Released January 20, 2023 ESRB M For Mature 17+ Due To Use Of Drugs And Alcohol, Blood, Strong Language, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Drug Reference Developer(s) IO Interactive Publisher(s) IO Interactive Engine Glacier engine

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Genre(s) Stealth, Action, Adventure Powered by Expand Collapse

Gaming
Hitman
007 First Light

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