A blog post on IO Interactive’s official Hitman site explains that the team has been hard at work on the game since the official announcement came back in January. The developers say that great progress is being made building “exotic and expansive locations” for the new game, but that it isn’t time to pull back the curtain on the product just yet…

It was pretty kind of IO to bring down the expectations of the community prior to the show, rather than letting the fans speculate only to be disappointed come June 10 when the game is completely absent from E3. Although it is disappointing that the game won’t be showcased, it doesn’t necessarily give fans anything to worry about development-wise. To give fans a small taste of what the new-gen Hitman experience will bring, the team did share one piece of concept art.

[Click For High-Res]

Compare the coloring to what could be the first concept art released nearly two years ago here. The location of the screen shot is Central Europe. IO explains that players will be able to explore the entirety of the building that stands in front of the protagonist.

It’s certainly not the teaser trailer that many fans were hoping would drop this June, but it is exciting to get our first look at how the development team plans to utilize the power of the new generation consoles to up the ante for the franchise. We look forward to getting a closer look at Hitman 6 sometime later this summer, but the developer has made it clear that it has no intention of lifting the lid off of the game until it is ready. And we can appreciate that given the pile of recently delayed games.

In other Hitman news, the developer announced that Square Enix Montreal is close to announcing updates for the Hitman Go mobile game and another brand new Hitman mobile game. IO Interactive has had hands-on time with the upcoming smartphone and tablet Hitman title and they claim it’s “a lot of fun.” There’s also a new Hitman movie in development titled Agent 47 so lots of Hitman franchise stuff coming our way soon.

No release date has been announced for Hitman 6 yet.

Follow Denny on Twitter @The_DFC.

Source: IO Interactive