Earlier today Hitman developers IO Interactive posted an open letter to Hitman fans where they talk about what they're up to.

The letter reveals that the next instalment in the series will feature a globetrotting Agent 47 at the prime of his career. He'll be stalking his prey across the world, with the support of his long-term handler Diana Burnwood and the whole of the ICA.

They also removed Agent 47's "magic pockets" that allowed him to pull sniper rifles and the like out of his pants.

The team promises to reveal more information later this year, which probably means during E3 in June.

Read the full letter here:

Dear Hitman fans,

We wanted to share this open letter with all of you out there eagerly awaiting more news about what’s happening next in the franchise.

At Io-Interactive right now, we are building the next AAA Hitman game for PC and next-gen consoles. It has our total focus and we wanted to take a moment to tell you a few things about it.

In the next game you will experience a globetrotting Agent 47 at the prime of his career – the apex predator stalking his prey across the world, with the support of his long-term handler Diana Burnwood and the whole of the ICA.

The game concentrates on the core Hitman fantasy of using a wide range of tools to take out a diverse group of targets across expansive, exotic locations around the world. We are building this game on the backbone of the Glacier 2 engine, using the best parts and what we have learnt through Hitman: Absolution and drawing inspiration from past titles like Contracts and Blood Money to fulfil the core Hitman fantasy. That means we’re packing in an extreme level of detail on the largest levels we have ever built for a Hitman game. We’ve adopted an open, non-linear level design approach to the game, ensuring the game will play out across huge, checkpoint-free, sandbox levels. Our aim is to create living, breathing and believable levels which will allow gamers to play around with the AI to create those unique moments every fan of the Hitman franchise loves.

Contracts Mode is back – you will be able to create and build challenges by experimenting with the large levels and possibilities within them. And of course, you can share them with the world and challenge your friends or foes to complete your hits. Your rules, your Contracts.

You will also be glad to hear that we have removed 47’s magic pockets. We believe that’s all we need to say about that subject.

As we get further into 2014, we will reveal more and get into much closer contact with all of you. There are so many things we have planned and we are extremely excited for the future of Hitman.

Thank you all for your dedication. We will share much, much more in the coming months.

The Io-Interactive Team