Everything to know from today's IOI Showcase
Featuring Hitman, MindsEye, and James Bond, it was a meaty presentation
News
We started and ended the day with Mads Mikkelsen. After he appeared at Summer Game Fest to talk about his new Hitman role as an elusive target, he came to the IOI Showcase to be a part of a panel. The team at IOI put on a great show, giving us plenty to learn about their upcoming slate. Here's a recap of what you should know.
Copenhagen, Denmark - June 7th, 2025 - Today, IO Interactive hosted the first official IOI SHOWCASE - a dedicated broadcast and live, in-person event covering a slate of upcoming announcements, which took place in Los Angeles, California. The event focused on upcoming in-development projects, including 007 First Light, soon-to-be-released AAA high-intensity thriller, MindsEye, as well as the iconic HITMAN World of Assassination, with a special guest appearance from Mads Mikkelsen. The showcase featured spokespeople from across IO Interactive and IOI Partners’ titles, including IO Interactive’s CEO, Hakan Abrak, its CTO, Ulas Karademir, its CCO, Christian Elverdam, the voice actor behind Agent 47, David Bateson, and Build A Rocket Boy’s Assistant Game Director Adam Whiting.
“IOI SHOWCASE is a celebration of the passionate work that has gone into creating the games that were part of the event, and a glimpse of the future of IOI and IOI Partners for our fans and community,” said Hakan Abrak, CEO at IO Interactive. “To be able to bring together all of those incredible independent studios today during IOI SHOWCASE is a testament to how tightly knit our industry is, and we are incredibly proud and grateful to have taken this step together with them.”
The following announcements were revealed:
HITMAN World of Assassination - Following a surprise reveal at Summer Game Fest, award-winning Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen made a special appearance at the IOI SHOWCASE, as he now enters the world of assassination, featuring as Le Chiffre, the fan-favourite villain from the 2006 film ‘Casino Royale’. The next high-profile Elusive Target in HITMAN World of Assassination is available to play right now until July 6th. This collaboration marks a unique foray, with a character from the 007 franchise featuring for the first time in HITMAN World of Assassination, making it a poker game not to be missed.
In addition, all players who play the new Elusive Target will get an exclusive suit for 007 First Light, IO Interactive’s immersive third-person action-adventure featuring an all-new, original James Bond story, scheduled to launch in 2026.
Alongside the new Elusive Target, the new Summer roadmap for the Season of the High-Stakes was revealed, continuing HITMAN World of Assassination’s regular support with updates and content since its launch in 2016.
The reveal was part of Hitman's 25th Anniversary announcements, with HITMAN World of Assassination reaching 25 million units sold, and 80 million registered players in HITMAN World of Assassination and its Free Starter Pack, which features each new celebrity Elusive Target upon their launch. The announcements also included a teaser for two additional Elusive Targets with more details to be shared in 2025.
Next was the news that HITMAN World of Assassination will debut on iOS in summer 2025. IO Interactive shared the news of a collaboration with MOOD Publishing to develop HITMAN - THE BOARD GAME, which fans can follow on its Kickstarter page Virtual Reality was also part of the celebration, with the recently launched PS VR2 port of HITMAN World of Assassination, which was launched with widespread acclaim, and more HITMAN content in VR is set to come this summer. Finally, IOI shared plans to develop a Co-Op mode for HITMAN World of Assassination with more information to come at a later date.
007 First Light - IO Interactive showcased 007 First Light’s reveal trailer, giving a first look at the reimagined origin of James Bond, featuring an original, standalone narrative. Among the partners for the game, NVIDIA GeForce is set to bring RTX technologies to 007 First Light. Finally, a full gameplay reveal is set for this summer. 007 First Light is available for wishlist on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and for PC on Steam and Epic Games Store, and Amazon.com pages. Additionally, players who sign up for an IOI Account will unlock the “On-Duty” Outfit Skin and the “Gilded Wraith” Weapon Skin for the game.
MindsEye - Build A Rocket Boy’s Assistant Game Director Adam Whiting presented all-new MindsEye gameplay footage during the IOI Showcase, which featured the game’s seamless transitions from cinematics to gameplay, with strategic combat, and thrilling flying and driving. A highlight was a closer look at the companion drone, which allows players to be as aggressive or as defensive as they please in gameplay, with evolving abilities unlocked throughout the game, enabling it to hack systems, stun enemies, and reach otherwise inaccessible areas.
The presentation also delved further into Play.MindsEye, where, at launch, players control when they want to dip out of the main narrative story and experience something different and fun, in totally different worlds and characters, with new gameplay dropping monthly. Built on their innovative creation system, BARB are excited to offer players varied gameplay experiences outside the core MindsEye narrative campaign, and the speed at which they will be delivering a constant stream of fresh content is unprecedented and truly exciting.
Glacier
IO Interactive’s CTO, Ulas Karademir, put the backbone of all IO Interactive’s games in the spotlight with a trailer showing just some of the capabilities of Glacier, IO Interactive’s proprietary game engine. For more than two decades, Glacier has enabled IOI to push through technological boundaries and create award-winning titles. Glacier is constantly evolving and updated by a dedicated team to fit the needs and ambition of IOI, as attests the first trailer for 007 First Light, entirely created in-engine.To learn more about IO Interactive, IOI Partners, and IOI SHOWCASE announcements, please visit the official website or follow news on X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
A re-run stream is planned to take place on the 7th of June at 5pm CEST / 4pm BST on IOI’s Twitch channel to take a look back at all of the announcements. Fans who were not able to unlock the Twitch drops during the IOI Showcase will be able to unlock them by tuning in to this stream on each respective channel.
Stay tuned to GamingTrend for more IOI news and info!
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