After Splitting Up with Square Enix, IO Interactive Gains Full Rights to Hitman Franchise

IO Interactive owns now all the rights to the Hitman franchise

(Mirror Daily, United States) – After registering unexpectedly low sales, Square Enix declared it planned either to sell or to shutter the Hitman franchise, leaving its future unclear. Several weeks after the announcement, the developer IO Interactive managed to regain its independence, and take the franchise with it.

IO Interactive goes independent

Hakan Abrak, the CEO of IO Interactive, declared the studio managed to reach an agreement with Square Enix, and became independent. Also, they were able to keep all the rights to the Hitman franchise, since they had more stories to bring for the fans, and couldn’t afford to let the game die.

Therefore, IO Interactive is able to publish a future Hitman title on its own. However, Abrak declared they were open for collaborations. So, if another publisher is interested, they are willing to start a partnership and develop together a new game.

When Square Enix decided to let Hitman go, several employees had to be fired. Some or all of them could return and continue working on the franchise, but IO Interactive did not declare anything. These employees might either return or, since the studio is now independent, they might also scale down the team working on the games.

The studio is content with the Hitman game and wants to keep the franchise alive

If you love stealth action games, a second Hitman game should come as great news, since other similar titles seem to be far away. Splinter Cell, for instance, declared there might pass a few years until they come with a new game, while Metal Gear gave up espionage in favor of a zombie game.

IO regarded the first episode of Hitman as a success, and assured fans they will constantly receive new content. Since then, they were offered many new objectives or targets, and, now, even a MacOS version is pending.

The first episode of Hitman is available for $50 as a physical copy for both Xbox One and PS4. Also, you can download it in a digital version for both consoles and for PC.
Image Source: Flickr

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Ryan has started his career as a web developer and designer before joining us. He enjoys the creativity work and loves experimenting with various techniques in both print and web. He covers the social media, technology and gadgets updates.