The developer behind the 'Hitman' franchise is working on its own 'Project 007' title based on Ian Fleming's iconic spy, and the team are working on a new and original story for the character.

IO boss Hakan Abrak told IGN: "So it's not a gamification of a movie. It's completely beginning and becoming a story, hopefully for a big trilogy out there in the future.

"And equally important and exciting, it's a new Bond. It's a Bond we built from the ground up for gamers.

"It's extremely exciting with all the tradition and all the history there is... to work on this together with the family [and create] a Bond that the gamers can call their own and grow with."

Abrak noted that "production's going amazingly well", hinting that fans can expect them to be "talking more about it" soon.

And while he feels 'Hitman' has given the team "20 plus years of training for the agent fantasy", they're now working with "a different IP".

He added: "It's a huge IP. It's not our IP. It's actually the first IP that is not our original IP from the ground up."

The game - which was first announced in 2021 - will come well over a decade since the latest Bond title, which was 2012's '007 Legends' on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC and Wii U.

Abrak added: "It definitely is something that is not overexposed in gaming. We actually see that as a strength...

"There's a lot of people out there who think about 'GoldenEye' as the classic... I don't want to speak too big about it, but I just hope we'll do a thing that will define James Bond in gaming for years to come.

"And that is not only one game, but that we create a universe for gamers to own for many years to come that we can grow with that next to the Bond on the movies."