Hitman 5 ARG Reveal

Things have been relatively quite with the Hitman games for the past few years. The last entry in the series to make an appearance was Hitman: Blood Money in 2006. Now, new news in the form of a mysterious alternate reality game might be pointing to an announcement regarding the franchise coming soon, possibly at E3 2011.

The speculation began with an advertisement in a Sundance Film Festival catalog from a company called Fairgroup Media Group. The ad showed a picture of "Hitman Series" brand doughnuts, with a barcode ending in the number 47.

A crafty user on the Hitman forums did some digging and discovered an e-mail address, from which he received the response that he "was on the right track" regarding his speculation. The e-mail also included an image that has an individual taking a drink while a script is on the table, along with some sketches that look vaguely reminiscent of the bald assassin, a pair of black gloves, and a large bar code that ends with 47.

Should all this prove to be true, E3 would definitely be the place to let the public know that Agent 47 will be returning to the gaming market. It has been widely speculated that the most recent Hitman game in development had being canceled, but with this latest development, perhaps a release date of Christmas 2011 might not be entirely out of the realm of possibility.

Blood Money was a great entry into the Hitman franchise, introducing some new mechanics like staging accidental deaths and a notoriety system. It would be hard to believe that these mechanics wouldn't make a return in the next game in the series, along with some new mechanics.

IO Interactive's last game to be released was Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days, which revamped that series' presentation entirely. Can something as drastic as the Dog Days changes be expected in this new Hitman game?

Hitman 5 might be coming in Christmas 2011, possibly for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Source: Joystiq