Square Enix Confirms David Bateson as Voice of Agent 47 in Hitman: Absolution

Hitman: Absolution

After a long and exhaustive search, games studio and developer IO Interactive have confirmed that they can now unveil the voice of Agent 47 -- who will once again be acted by David Bateson, the bloke who has been the voice of Hitman since the year 2000 with the seminal PC release of the game Codename 47. OK really? Was Bateson lost? Why did they have to search for him? Were dogs involved? Dogs with small barrels of brandy attached to their necks? Inquiring minds want to know!

Whatever the facts turn out to be, it seems that Bateson will reprise his role, and share the stage with William Mapother (star of hit TV series LOST) who performed the motion capture work for Agent 47 recorded at Giant Studios.

Speaking about the decision to return to Bateson after the studio earlier declared he wouldn't be the voice of 47 in Hitman: Absolution, Brand Director Jon Brooke said, "IO and Bateson have been bed fellows for over a decade and like all long running relationships sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder. Looking back I think we were just playing hard to get."

Both Bateson and Mapother now join a long list of talent announced for the game including Marsha Thomason, Keith Carradine, Vivica Fox, Shannyn Sossamon and Powers Boothe.

Hitman: Absolution is the most ambitious Hitman game IO have ever undertaken and is set to be released globally November 20th, 2012 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

I/O Interactive (commonly abbreviated to IOI), is the Danish video game development company owned by Square Enix and founded in 1998 by the Reto-Moto development group, and is infamous and famous too for being the home of Agent 47, that iconic and loveable orphan whose success story that begins with being a lab experiment and ends with being the top man in his field... Well, yeah, his field is killing people... But still, he is the best in his career track and that has to count for something, right? Right!

It should not be too much of a surprise that, to-date, IOI's most popular franchise is the critically acclaimed Hitman series. In fact the team that created 47 and documented his story is pretty well known for their habit of referencing their own games in their other games -- like Agent 47 advertising clothes as a model in Freedom Fighters, or the warm and fuzzy love story of Kane & Lynch featuring several Hitman references, including an Achievement that has become almost a Meme, and the Number 47 Garage just to name the two we can think about...