IO boss says surprise! Not only is 007 First Light imminent but that fantasy RPG it announced years ago is 'Very, very far' along too

You know, amid the steady stream of murderable celebs in Hitman: World of Assassination and the hoopla around 007 First Light's imminent release on May 27, I forgot that IO has another iron in the fire—the online fantasy RPG it announced in 2023 (and which I apparently wrote the news article for. The past is a foreign country).

But it's been boiling away somewhere in Denmark (and/or IO's various other studios) all this time, and per IO CEO (Ee Eye Ee Eye Oh) Hakan Abrak in a recent chat with The Game Business, it's actually near to full-cooked.

"We are very, very far with that fantasy project," said Abrak, despite all the other plates IO has been spinning. "Bond is a very different game than Hitman," continued Abrak, "Building that core loop and that core platform, a foundation for a whole new system and game. Whoever has done game development knows that's very, very hard. Then we chose to do two of those at the same time."

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So Bond's almost here and the fantasy game—still unnamed, but I continue to think it should star Agent 47 and be called Baldy's Gate—will follow after. And then? It sounds like IO's right back to Hitman, baby.

"We're looking forward to getting into the weeds with Hitman again. There hasn't been air for that, for going in and building systems from the ground up, but rest assured: we cannot wait to get into the engine room and upgrade, invent, innovate Hitman again for you guys."

So IO still has a hell of a lot of game ahead of it, even after 007 First Light hits. Suits me. I'm curious to see what an IO fantasy game looks like and, considering a solid 34% of my lifetime is now dedicated to repeated runs of Hitman's Freelancer mode, I absolutely can't wait to see what Agent 47's next set of whacky adventures brings.

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