One of the best entries in the entire Hitman franchise is getting re-released. Hitman: Blood Money is being ported to the Nintendo Switch and the mobile platform in what Feral Interactive is calling a “comprehensive reworking.” The title, dubbed Hitman: Blood Money Reprisal, will feature new features and visual enhancements that were inspired by later entries in the series. The mobile version will release sometime this Fall, while the Switch edition is slated to release in the Winter. In addition, the developer confirmed that Switch will have no physical edition and can only purchased digitally.
The developers of the entire Hitman franchise is also celebrating a major milestone this year. IO Interactive is enjoying its 25th Anniversary, having first been established as a studio way back in 1998. Their very first title of course was Hitman: Code 47 in 2000, and the famous, or infamous bald/barcoded assassin has been the face of the studio ever since. The studio has gone through several periods of change, the most notable ones being when they were acquired by Eidos in 2004, and then being acquired by Square Enix in 2009.
IO Interactive’s time with Square Enix is often considered a fairly turbulent time by fans as the studio deviated slightly from the Hitman series and dabbled in other projects. In 2017, Square Enix announced that they had withdrawn funding for the studio and was looking to sell them. In turn, IO Interactive decided to buy themselves out of the deal, therefore making them independent for the first time since they were established. They then released the rebooted Hitman trilogy, or as it’s now known, Hitman: The World of Assassination, which has gone onto critical acclaim and brought the studio back into the forefront of the industry.
To further celebrate this anniversary, IO Interactive is releasing a special Elusive Target mission called The Drop, which will go live on October 27. Agent 47 is tasked with finding his target in a seedy Berlin club, who is apparently a DJ who is also a drug lord. The studio is also currently working on two new IP’s, an online fantasy RPG called Project Fantasy, and a James Bond title dubbed Project 007, which is rumored to become a trilogy itself.