Hitman’s developer takes a stab at an online fantasy RPG

IO Interactive is working on a game that diverges from its roots in stealth-based assassinations.

IO Interactive, the developer known for the long-running Hitman franchise, is working on a new game in the fantasy RPG genre it says it will “expand for many years to come.”

The title, codenamed “Project Fantasy,” won’t have anything to do with the Hitman franchise (although it would be hilarious to see Agent 47 wielding a bow and arrow on horseback). In its announcement, IO Interactive shared an image showing three World of Warcraft-esque characters looking out into a sprawling landscape and says the team takes inspiration from roleplaying books and tabletop games.

“This idea – that a diverse group of individuals with different skills and strengths can work together and become more than the sum of their parts — is what inspires us,” IO Interactive writes. “It inspires the fantasy world we are building — and it inspires how we build it.”

Aside from that, we don’t really know what to expect in terms of gameplay or plot, but it seems to corroborate rumors about the “Project Dragon” game Windows Central first reported on in 2021. At the time, the outlet described the upcoming game as a “connected-world RPG, set in an entirely new universe” that it’s potentially working on with Microsoft.

For now, though, IO Interactive continues to build out the world of Hitman and recently launched Freelancer mode in Hitman 3. It also announced a new Hitman World of Assassination bundle consisting of Hitman 1, 2, and 3 and is working on a new game based on the origins of James Bond, which may still be a couple of years out.