November 4^th, 2004 (5:36pm) - Eidos’ popular Hitman franchise is getting another sequel - already! Hot off the heels of the 2004 release of Hitman: Contracts comes Hitman: Blood Money, set for a Spring 2005 release on PS2, Xbox, and PC.

Eidos, one of the world’s leading publishers and developers of entertainment software, announces the return of the world’s deadliest assassin in Hitman: Blood Money. Developed by Io Interactive, Hitman Blood Money will be released worldwide in spring 2005 on PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC.

When assassins from Agent 47’s contract agency, The ICA, are systematically eliminated in a series of hits, it seems a larger, more powerful agency has entered the fray. For Agent 47 it’s business as usual, until suddenly he loses contact with The ICA. Sensing that he may be the next target, he travels to America, where he prepares to make a killing.

Agent 47 is back and this time he’s paid in cold, hard cash. How the money is spent will affect his passage through the game and the weapons at his disposal, resulting in a unique gameplay experience for each player. Powered by a new version of Io’s stunning Glacier engine, Hitman: Blood Money will deliver the most brutal and realistic simulation of life as the world’s deadliest assassin.

"Considerable time and effort has been spent developing a new version of the Glacier engine that enables us to implement many new and exciting features," commented Janos Flösser, managing director of Io-Interactive. "The quality of the graphics and A.I. surpasses even our own expectations and this combined with a gripping narrative and the introduction of some really inventive characters makes us confident that Blood Money will be the greatest Hitman title to date."

No further information is available at this time, nor any screens or artwork, but we will bring it to you as soon as it becomes available. For now we can all stare blankly at the official site, www.hitman.com.