I know cool, I’m on the cutting edge of knowing cool. I was a DJ once (for a year 7 disco) so I know what I’m talking about when it comes to the cool. When I say the Hitman game franchise is cool then brother (or sister) you know it is.

As I stare Bambi eyed into my past here at TAGS I remember my first ever podcast. As my anticopatometer I meekly suggested the next Hitman game, confident an announcement would be coming soon that the game did, in fact, exist. Well this isn’t an official announcement but….

This actor, right, called Mark Sloan, does mocap work for Rocksteady Studios, who have recently completed the looks very good but we’re waiting to see Batman: Arkham Asylum, has listed Hitman 5 on his resume. Kinda lending credence to the idea that Hitman 5 is underway at Rocksteady Studios.

After playing the Batman demo, possibly the most achingly teasing demo ever (I’ve completed it six times so far), the idea of the same team working on the next Hitman game fills my mouth with salty drool. This could be a Hitman game more than worth the wait. As Eidos are working on Mini Ninjas and Kane and Lynch 2 it also stands to reason they might send out the next Hitman game for another team to do. All speculation, but tantalisingly exciting speculation.

Of course no official announcement has been made. Hitman is mentioned every year in Eidos’s financial report as a franchise to be further developed. Mark Sloan's resume (read it here) also says he did the motion capture work in 2008. Which means development is at the very least seven months on. But this is one of those rumours from so odd a source it has to be true.

….right?