IO Interactive First Ever Showcase Recap June 2025
On June 7th, 2025, in Los Angeles, California IO Interactive hosted the first official IOI SHOWCASE – a dedicated broadcast and live, in-person event covering a slate of upcoming announcements. The event focused on in-development projects, including 007 First Light, MindsEye, and HITMAN World of Assassination. There was even 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, CTO Ulas Karademir, CCO David Bateson, Build A Rocket Boy’s Assistant Game Director Adam Whiting, and Christian Elverdam, the voice actor behind Agent 47.
“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. 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.” – Hakan Abrak, CEO of IO Interactive.
HITMAN World of Assassination
Mads Mikkelsen made a special appearance at the IOI SHOWCASE. He is reprising his role as Le Chiffre, the fan-favorite villain from the 2006 James Bond film ‘Casino Royale’. He is the next high-profile Elusive Target in HITMAN World of Assassination which is available to play right now until July 6th. This collaboration marks a unique foray into crossover territory, with a character from the 007 franchise featuring for the first time in HITMAN World of Assassination. In addition, all players who play the new Elusive Target will get an exclusive suit for 007 First Light. Alongside the new Elusive Target, the new Summer roadmap for the Season of the High-Stakes was also revealed. IOI continues to support HITMAN World of Assassination with updates and content since its launch in 2016.
The big reveal was part of Hitman’s 25th Anniversary other announcements:
- HITMAN World of Assassination reaching 25 million units sold, and 80 million registered players in HITMAN World of Assassination.
- A teaser for two additional Elusive Targets with more details to be shared in 2025.
- HITMAN World of Assassination will also debut on iOS in Summer 2025
IO Interactive also shared the news of a collaboration with MOOD Publishing to develop HITMAN – THE BOARD GAME. Fans can follow its Kickstarter page. Virtual Reality was also part of the celebration, with the recently launched PS VR2 port of HITMAN World of Assassination, with more HITMAN content in VR set to come this summer. Finally, plans were shown 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. Among the partners for the game, NVIDIA GeForce is set to bring RTX technologies to 007 First Light (Get that beefy Graphics Card ready to go!). Finally, a full gameplay reveal is set for summer 2025.
007 First Light is available for wishlist on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and for PC on Steam, Epic Games Store, and Amazon.com pages. 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
Adam Whiting presented all-new MindsEye gameplay footage during the showcase. Featured were the game’s seamless transitions from cinematics to gameplay. 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. It also showed the drone’s evolving abilities, enabling it to hack systems, stun enemies, and reach inaccessible areas.
The presentation also delved further into gameplay. MindsEye, will allow players to control when they want to dip in and out of the main narrative story. They can experience something in totally different worlds and characters, with new gameplay dropping monthly. Built on their innovative creation system, Build A Rocket Boy is excited to offer players varied gameplay experiences outside the core MindsEye main narrative campaign. They are very proud of the speed at which they will be able to deliver a constant stream of fresh content.
From the GO
You can check out the presentation now after the fact on IOI’s Twitch channel. The stream is about 2 hours long. The red carpet interviews are an interesting distraction during the wait, but the meat and potatoes are the games themselves and you can easily scrub through the stream replay to get right to them. They keep putting out content for Hitman, and it seems to be working for them. I personally don’t play it, and don’t know who does, but color me intrigued with the 007 crossover content. 007 First Light is highly anticipated by a lot of us here at the GO. MindsEye looks interesting, and to be honest, we need more 3rd person adventure games.
