Speaking to GamesRadar+ in a new interview, IO Interactive development director Veronique Lallier addressed the current state of the Hitman franchise. It turns out that adding Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor to Hitman 3 as a temporary Elusive Target proved to be a huge hit, causing the three-year-old game’s active player count to spike .

Lallier said Hitman 3 has maintained a “stable” player count since McGregor launched a few weeks ago, which is even more impressive considering McGregor is only available as an Item. Elusive Targets over three days at the end of June. Elusive Targets, as their name suggests, are extremely rare, and McGregor is no exception.

So it’s perhaps not surprising to learn that IOI isn’t quite done with Hitman 3 yet. Lallier teased that, after new Elusive Targets like McGregor and last year’s roguelike Freelancer mode, The developer still has “more surprises in store for the game,” and they are currently expected to be revealed later this year.

Elsewhere in the new interview, Lallier told GamesRadar+ that the developer’s new project Project Fantasy is a “vibrant” game that hopes to innovate in the online role-playing space. Meanwhile, switching to building Project 007 after many years of working on Hitman games made this female leader feel “natural”, because it is close to the studio’s “DNA”.