Hitman Goes Indie as IO Interactive Successfully Buys Itself
After Square Enix announced they were looking to sell IO Interactive a month ago, everyone started wondering who’d step in and scoop the studio up. As word got out the publisher was ready to part with the Hitman IP as well, it was only a matter of time before we knew more about Hitman’s new home. It turns out IO Interactive managed to buy itself, effectively going independent.
The announcement of the management buyout came as a surprise earlier today. The important thing is that the studio’s most famous series will remain in the hands of its creators. Your guess is as good as ours when it comes to what happens next, but one thing’s for sure – they’ll probably need external funding if they are to keep making Hitman. Triple A games aren’t a cheap business, and the reason Square Enix decided to sell off the studio in the first place is because they were unhappy with their flagship’s performance.
IO Interactive’s CEO, Hakan Abrak, posted a statement on their official site. Here’s the juicy part of it:
This is a watershed moment for IOI. As of today, we have complete control over the direction for our studio and the Hitman IP – we’re about to forge our own future and it’s incredibly exciting. We are now open to opportunities with future collaborators and partners to help strengthen us as a studio and ensure that we can produce the best games possible for our community.
I would like to say a big and sincere thank you to all of our players, community, friends in the media and everyone else connected to the studio for the messages of support that we have received in the last few weeks. I would also like to thank Square Enix; it has been a great family to be a part of and we are proud of what we have achieved together in the last eight years. IOI started as an independent studio and we will now return to those roots with an extremely passionate and talented team.
We should have more news about the what the future holds for the studio and their beloved bald murderer next week.
