Hitman developer IO Interactive has announced the "next Hitman game" is currently in development. The new game doesn't yet have a name and we know nothing more about it, but this is the first we've heard of a new entry in the series since IO went independent from Square Enix after fears the studio and franchise would be shut down.

In a blog post about the newly released Hitman - Game of the Year Edition, IO CEO Hakan Abrak mentioned a new game in the series is on the way: "One last thing about our next Hitman game; I want to let you know that we’re making great progress and we have exciting new features and some franchise firsts, which we can't wait to tell you all about. You'll have to wait a little longer as we don't plan to start talking about that until some point in 2018."

It's unclear what the announcement of the "next Hitman game" means for the 2016 reboot, Hitman. IO stated last year that the episodic game was simply Season 1 of a three season plan (and it refers to "Season 1" again in this blog post); it also released a physical version of the game called Hitman: The Complete First Season at the start of this year. Although the new Game of the Year Edition includes some new content, it is not a full second or third season and there is no news on whether those are still coming. GameSpot has contacted IO for comment.

Elsewhere in the post, Abrak says Hitman has now passed 7 million players--though it's unclear if that includes players who've simply downloaded the now-free-of-charge first portion of the game.

In other Hitman news, the game's Xbox One X enhancement update is now available for download. It includes options for native 4K and higher frame rate for Xbox One X users and a redesigned UI and more features for all players. For more on Microsoft's new console, check out our Xbox One X review or our list of all the Xbox One X enhanced games.