IO Interactive Is Not Done yet as They Just Announced the Remaster of a Classic Trilogy

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Published Jun 5, 2026, 9:04 PM EDT

Linda Güster is a Contributor at DualShockers and a German, UK-based gaming journalist specializing in video games, esports, industry analysis, features, lists, reviews, interviews, and news. She has been writing professionally since 2020 and began covering video games and esports in 2025, turning a lifelong passion into her professional focus.

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IO Interactive and Saber Interactive dropped a trailer for the Hitman Classic Trilogy Remastered during a Summer Game Fest presentation, and the Steam page appeared shortly after. The collection brings together Hitman: Codename 47, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, and Hitman: Contracts, all three rebuilt from the ground up with upgraded character models, enhanced environments, high-resolution textures, a graphics toggle between old and new, and a new Photo Mode. It is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam in 2027.

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The Steam page is live now. No exact release date, just "coming soon," which in this context means somewhere in 2027. That is enough to work with.

Why Codename 47 Being Included Is Exciting

 Codename 47 IO Interactive / via Mobygames

The headline feature of this collection is easy to miss if you are not paying attention, but it is genuinely significant. Hitman: Codename 47 has never been on consoles. Not once in its entire twenty-six-year existence. The game launched in November 2000 as a PC exclusive, and while its best levels were partially remade in Contracts, the original title has lived exclusively on Windows this entire time. Consoles simply never got it.

Every previous attempt to collect the classic Hitman games worked around this. The Hitman HD Trilogy, released in 2013, bundled Silent Assassin, Contracts, and Blood Money. The HD Enhanced Collection went with Silent Assassin and Contracts. Codename 47 was conspicuously absent every single time, largely because it was a PC-only game from an era when IO Interactive did not yet have easy access to console development kits. This collection is the first time console players will have had legitimate access to the game that started everything.

Codename 47 is rough by modern standards – the AI alone has been the subject of fond mockery for decades – but it is the origin point of one of gaming's most beloved franchises, and for an enormous portion of the fanbase it has simply never been accessible in any meaningful way.

Hitman: Codename 47 has never been on consoles. Not once in its entire twenty-six-year existence.

What the Remaster Actually Includes

The trailer blurb describes it as "painstakingly rebuilt from the ground up," which is a stronger claim than a standard remaster and worth holding them to when the game actually releases. The side-by-side screenshots on the Steam page look promising at first glance – objects, textures, and lighting are all noticeably improved, and crucially, nothing obvious appears to have been sanded off or modernized into blandness. The art direction and personality seem intact, which for games of this era is not always a given.

The graphics toggle – the ability to switch between original and remastered visuals at will – is a feature that has become standard for this kind of release, and it is the right call. These games have a specific visual identity that plenty of fans will want to preserve. Photo Mode is new, which will almost certainly produce some deeply committed screenshots of Agent 47 standing over a knocked-out chef in a hotel kitchen somewhere.

Saber Interactive handling the remaster alongside IO is worth noting. Saber has a reasonable track record with this kind of work, and the involvement of a dedicated remaster studio rather than an internal team suggests IO's main focus stays on whatever comes next.

Silent Assassin and Contracts have existed in HD form before, so the treatment for those two is more about bringing them to a modern standard than making them newly accessible.

Saber Interactive handling the remaster alongside IO is worth noting. Saber has a reasonable track record with this kind of work, and the involvement of a dedicated remaster studio rather than an internal team suggests IO's main focus stays on whatever comes next.

Silent Assassin introduced the stealth mechanics and rating system that the franchise built everything on. Contracts served as both a sequel and a partial remake of Codename 47, revisiting several of the original game's locations with the more refined mechanics of its predecessor. Together, the three form a coherent picture of what the franchise was before it reinvented itself entirely.

The Timing Makes a Lot of Sense

hitman-008-2.jpg Agent 47 (Rupert Friend) with two pistols in Hitman: Agent 47.

IO Interactive is riding the momentum of 007 First Light, which has sold 2.7 million copies and reminded a lot of people why this studio makes some of the best stealth games in the business. Announcing a remaster of the games that built that reputation – one that makes the very first entry accessible to console and modern PC players for the first time – is a logical way to keep that conversation going while work continues on whatever comes next for the franchise.

It is also worth noting that this was not entirely a surprise to the most devoted Hitman fans. IO teased classic trilogy content at the IOI Showcase in June 2025, and the community had spent a year quietly wondering whether it was still happening. Now there is a Steam page. That answers that.

Codename 47 on console for the first time. Silent Assassin and Contracts rebuilt for modern hardware. PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC in 2027. If you have ever wanted to understand where Agent 47 actually came from, this is the version to do it with.

007 First Light Metal Gear Solid Delta Next:

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Systems

PC-1

Released November 19, 2000

ESRB m

Publisher(s) Eidos Interactive

Engine Glacier engine

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