Hitman developers IO Interactive discuss future episodic seasons

In early August the official Hitman Twitter account stated IO Interactive's intention to release further seasons of its episodic take on the open assassination series, but also made clear that there are no concrete plans just yet.

At Gamescom 2016, IBTimes UK spoke to IO Interactive's global brand PR manager Sven Liebold about the future of Hitman, and what he jokingly refers to as "that god damn tweet".

"We were pretty open about [multiple seasons] actually," he said. "We always said we planned this story across several, because its like a TV show, you always plan that way.

"We haven't defined the amount of seasons we want to do, but, like I said, we've created this huge story arc we have in place. We know our players, and season one primarily introduces us to these players, and from there... we'll see."

This year's episodic Hitman is a new take on the beloved series, which casts players in the role of killing machine Agent 47 in small open levels in which they're free to approach assassination targets however they please.

Starting with a first episode set in Paris, the game has since travelled to an Italian coastal town, a Swedish embassy in Marrakesh and a hotel in Bangkok. Two further episodes set in the United States and Japan will be released later this year.

Asked whether IO has any future locations in mind, Liebold said: "We definitely keep that erm... tourism thing. I mean of course we think about where we'd like to go next, but our focus is definitely finish the season because it's a huge learning process for us – we've never done something like... no one's ever done something like it.

"It's interesting to see what locations appeal to different people. Of course we all have different tastes, but we know a lot of people like Sapienza [the Italian location] for example."

Liebold also revealed an apt location he'd like to see Agent 4 run amok in. "We're in Germany right," he said. "I always pitched for, 'Hey, let's do Oktoberfest, let's do steins and beer tents' [laughs]."

Hitman's fifth episode is set for release at some time in September.

For all the latest video game news follow us on Twitter @IBTGamesUK.