Io-Interactive, the developers of Hitman, have announced that Ryan Barnard has joined the organisation in the freshly minted role of Gameplay Director. Before the change, Ryan Barnard worked as Game Director on the hugely successful Tom Clancy's The Division. From Io-Interactive's statement:

"Ryan will focus on expanding on the near-endless possibilities of gameplay that a game like HITMAN possesses. This means heading up the future efforts of three of our very core teams – gameplay, online and world – which will be no small task. Ryan’s contributions to game design over the years show he’s the ideal person to spearhead the coming efforts. We are very happy to add his talent to the pool of great people working at IOI."

It seems Barnard's work will now be focused on the Hitman franchise as he joins a team of "170 people who are collectively working on taking HITMAN into a new era of digital-first AAA games".