IO Interactive announces that they are working on a new online fantasy RPG codenamed Project Fantasy. Across its studios in Copenhagen, Malmö, and Barcelona, IO is currently working on Hitman: World of Assassination and a James Bond game. In an official press release, the devs said “We are building a new world, a new IP – an online fantasy RPG. A world and a game built from the core to entertain players and expand for many years to come. It feels familiar, yet at the same time IOI is going on a journey unlike any we have been on before.”
While not much is known about Project Fantasy, there is evidence that IO’s new game will be an Xbox exclusive. Back in 2021, Windows Central said that IO has teamed up with Microsoft to work on a new “dragon-themed IP” and that Xbox would publish the game as a first-party Xbox exclusive. Nothing official has been said yet.
“For many, this journey is also a deeply personal one that began long before we started making games for a living – and it started with the fantasy genre,” IO Interactive said. From the “Fighting Fantasy” books compelling you to choose your path, alone, against wizards, lizards, and thief kings. To the togetherness, camaraderie, agony, and delight found around the tabletop. For some it meant taking the role of a game master: Part storyteller, part AI opponent, part guide, part villain. For everyone around that table it meant creativity, imagination, building a world together, and a shared goal in creating a great game experience.”
IO Interactive continued: “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. It inspires the fantasy world we are building – and it inspires how we build it. IOI now spans multiple distinct studios, from Copenhagen and Malmö in the north to warm Barcelona in the south. All studios take part in making all our games, including this new endeavor. People from all over the world with diverse personalities and skillsets are coming together to forge a new beginning.”