Hitman: Blood Money director returns to IO Interactive

Hitman: Blood Money director Rasmus Højengaard and former CD Projekt Red developer Andrzej Zawadzki are joining Hitman studio IO Interactive, the studio has announced.

Højengaard is returning to IO Interactive as design director 15 years after leaving the studio in 2006. Some of the stuff he's worked on outside of IO includes Battlefield 5, Star Wars Battlefront, and Mirror's Edge at Dice in Stockholm.

Zawadzki is IO Interactive's new senior game designer, having previously worked on The Witcher 3 and served as lead gameplay designer on Cyberpunk 2077 while he was at CD Projekt.

IO Interactive says it's bringing on the two developers to help with development on Hitman, Project 007, and a "new, unannounced original IP." Zawadzki specifically was hired to work on the new series, while Højengaard will be working on all of IO's upcoming games.

As for IO's mystery unannounced game, recent job listings suggest it's a multiplayer title, or at least something with a multiplayer element. And then, of course, there's Project 007, which tells a James Bond origin story. Another job listing suggests Project 007 will have "character-driven scenes with substantial dialogue," which sounds like a pretty big departure from Hitman 3.

Speaking of Hitman, these are the best stealth games to play right now.

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