At least, that’s according to reports from Windows Central (opens in new tab) and Eurogamer (opens in new tab), which state that the fantasy IP will feature a large medieval-esque world filled with dragons.
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What we know about the Xbox Series X fantasy IP
IO Interactive has been hard at work as of late, with the recent launch of Hitman 3 and the new James Bond game it just announced, Project 007. With that in mind, and with information from the reports, it sounds like the new fantasy IP is still in early development and won’t be seen for several years. IO Interactive boss Hakan Abrak actually briefly spoke about a third IP in development by the studio before the reports broke earlier this month at a GI Live: Online keynote speech (opens in new tab). “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,” Abrak said. “It is something our core people, our veteran staff, have been dreaming about for some time.” IO Interactive also apparently intends to double its staff size to 400 by the time that the new James Bond game releases, so the company will have a relatively large team working on multiple games at once. And as revealed by GamesIndustry.biz (opens in new tab), IO Interactive also announced that it will open a third studio location in Barcelona. The company not only intends to expand on its own projects but to also help publish other works. “This is something that’s in motion, and it’s very likely that IO will be publishing not only our own games, but other people’s games in the future, as well,” Abrak concluded. “It was just a handful of years ago where this was unthinkable, where it was more just a few big publishers. Things are changing. That still works. I think the big publishers have a role to play going forward. I’ll be open and say it’s very likely IO will have one of our games published by someone else. That’s very possible.” IO Interactive seems to be moving up in the world and it’ll be interesting to see the state of the company within a few years from now when James Bond launches and when the new Xbox Series X IP is finally revealed.
