IO Interactive could be making its own fantasy RPG, but it’s apparently still in the prototype stage of development.
As well as post-launch DLC for Hitman 3 and its James Bond project, IO Interactive is working on a brand new game as well. But instead of assassins or secret agents, it will apparently involve dragons.
According to a report from Windows Central, the studio is in talks with Microsoft to make a fantasy role-playing game for Xbox, currently codenamed Project Dragon and assumed to be an exclusive.
The project is still in very early development, so things could change, but it’s described as being incredibly ambitious, featuring an interconnected world and possibly multiplayer functionality. This is hinted at by multiple job listings that specifically relate to multiplayer for an unannounced project.
Eurogamer claims to have heard the same thing from its own sources, saying that it will be a triple-A game set in a large medieval-like world and have the aforementioned dragons.
It’s not clear if this Project Dragon is one of the four Xbox projects that Windows Central discussed beforehand. One of them, only referred to as Cyclone, sounds an awful lot like Project Dragon in that it has multiplayer and an ‘ambitious connected world.’
They’re probably not the same thing though, and not just because of the different codenames. Cyclone is apparently quite far into its development (with it even potentially being revealed this year) but Project Dragon could be one of the other three.
At the very least, IO does have a third, all new franchise in the works. Aside from the job listings, CEO Haka Abrak said so himself in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, while discussing the developer’s newly opened third studio in Barcelona.
‘Without going into too much detail, we have a third universe that we’re working actively on, which is a bit different and absolutely a love child. It is something our core people, our veteran staff, have been dreaming about for some time.’
Interestingly enough, before it made its first game, Hitman: Codename 47, IO had initially come up with a fantasy multiplayer game called Rex Dominus. But staff at Nordisk Film (which IO was partnered with at the time) asked that it stop development and focus on making a simple shooter instead, according to an interview with Retro Gamer from 2018.
Could IO be returning to that idea after 20+ years? It’s not impossible, but it likely won’t share any official details on this third project for a while, especially when so little is known about the James Bond game as well.
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