IO Interactive is a busy, busy developer. Having made its mark on the immersive sim genre with the sublime Hitman trilogy over the past eight years, it’s now looking ahead to two brand new titles: Online RPG Project Fantasy, and an adventure with super-spy James Bond in Project 007 . “It’s a very exciting project, very close to my heart,” says IO Interactive's chief development officer Veronique Lallier of Project Fantasy, while staying tight-lipped about the entire thing.
Lallier joined IO Interactive in its Brighton-based office just earlier this year in January, the latest endeavour in an expansive career beginning all the way back in 1999 in Paris, when she would camp outside Ubisoft ’s offices to secure an internship. It’s fair to say Lallier has been all over the place since then, working for a French TV channel under MTV, then heading to Rockstar to help launch Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and San Andreas. She then supported the launch of a little-known MMO called World of Warcraft, before helping Warner Bros.
establish itself in the gaming space with huge franchises like Mortal Kombat. There and back again Now, though, 25 years after her career first began, Lallier finds herself at the forefront of IO Interactive, and in charge of developing three series simultaneously: Hitman, Project Fantasy, and Project 007. She describes IOI’s Brighton office as “pushing the walls” with 30 people crammed into just one floor, and big plans are underway to expand.