First Hitman 5 Image Revealed, E3 Debut Teased

The first actual image of Hitman 5 may have been revealed by its developer, IO Interactive, over the weekend as part of an investigation game it had hosted on its official forums.

Bear in mind that this isn't actually confirmed, as IO is still playing coy and continues its viral campaign.

The whole thing started with an IO representative posting various teaser files onto the forum and asking members to try and decode the information.

After plenty of sleuthing, the community managed to reach a date: June 7, 2011, which is the actual start of the E3 conference this summer.

The IO community man confirmed that their investigation was right.

"Yeah, looks like you've done excellent detective work, guys. I'm very proud. Being the Sherlock Holmes that I am, however, I can see there's one thing that you've yet to discover..."

After that, he posted a file that had a web page address in its metadata. At that location, forum members found the picture you see above, depicting a man with gloves on his hands putting a silencer on a weapon, in classic Hitman style.

This was met with huge excitement by the forum members, but IO declined to say anything else, prompting fans to continue posting their thoughts on the forum thread of the viral campaign.

IO's Hitman franchise has seen multiple iterations over the years, but, in the last few ones, its protagonist, Agent 47, hasn't seen much work.

Hitman 5 was rumored for quite some time, with loyal fans trying to decrypt any piece of information or statement coming from IO.

After Square Enix bought the IO parent company Eidos Interactive a couple of years ago, fans hoped that a sequel would appear.

Instead, IO pushed a new iteration in its Kane & Lynch series, Dog Days, which wasn't that big of a success.

Now, it seems that the Scandinavian developer is looking to revive its dormant Hitman franchise with a new title, which may be revealed at E3.

Until then, let's hope more details will be made available.