David Bateson dropped from Hitman: Absolution

David Bateson, the voice actor for Hitman’s Agent 47 since the start of the series, has been dropped for Hitman: Absolution according to reports.
The latest issue of Edge contains a lengthy Hitman piece, including the news that “47′s voice actor will not be returning”. One member of the Hitman forums claims to have contacted Bateson by email, and received the following reply: “The absolute truth is: no one from IO Interactive is answering my calls, e-mails or sms. Feeling very let down at the moment but I haven’t heard personally.”
It’s not confirmed whether this email is genuine and it has since been removed “by request” from the forums.
One of the earliest ‘exclusives’ about Hitman: Absolution was given to The Hollywood Reporter and suggested that “a dozen” hollywood actors would be appearing in the game. Agent 47’s role was not mentioned in that article, but perhaps IO Interactive no longer consider Bateson to be ‘high profile’ enough for their series.
An interesting side note to the whole affair is that Bateson was one of the first people to semi-confirm rumours of a fifth Hitman title, publishing details on his website of his work on Hitman 5.
Source: hitmanforum.com