Hitman Dev IO Interactive Making Fantasy-Themed Xbox Exclusive - Report

A new report by Windows Central Gaming states that IO has teamed up with Microsoft and is in the very early stages of developing a new fantasy-themed IP that will be published under the Xbox Game Studios banner.

This ties in with an interview that IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak had with GamesIndustry earlier this month, in which he revealed that the studio had multiple games in varying stages of development.

"It is something our core people, our veteran staff, have been dreaming about for some time," Hakan said. "Without going into too much detail, we have a third universe that we’re working actively on, which is a bit different and absolutely a love child."

Twitter user Kobrille, who regularly reports on Xbox Game Studios projects, and Eurogamer further corroborated the report. "I guess this is out in the wild then," Kobrille tweeted. "It’s early, and years away. But it’s exciting."

According to Eurogamer, the early plan is for the game to feature dragons and a "large medieval-esque world."

Having split from publisher Square Enix after the complete launch of Hitman, IO Interactive partnered with Warner Bros. for Hitman 2, and went independent for Hitman 3.

The third game has proven to be a profitable final chapter in the World of Assassination trilogy and is being followed by IO Interactive's James Bond game. To focus more on that game, the studio has doubled in size recently and has opened a new office in Barcelona to assist with the development on Project 007.