Back in 2009, Square Enix bought IO Interactive, the developers of Hitman. 8 years later, just a few days ago, it was announced that the two companies are to part ways
Square Enix is based in Japan and it is best known for its role-playing video games, including the extremely popular Final Fantasy series. In 2009, the Japanese game developer bought IO Interactive, which is a video game developer based in Denmark. IO Interactive has developed a few games over its 17-year lifespan, but it’s easy to say that Hitman is by far the most popular that they have made.
It has been rumoured that IO Interactive are going to keep the rights to the popular game of Hitman, and that a second series is currently in development. However, according to Square Enix, the Danish company is now up for sale. This has left a lot of Hitman-lovers hanging on the edge of their seats in panic on whether the second series is going to be affected by this shock decision.
Square Enix’s official statement
But why has this shock turn of events come about? Well, in a statement by Square Enix, the Japanese company said that in order to “maximize player satisfaction as well as market potential going forward, we are focusing our resources and energies on key franchises and studios”. Due to this, the Japanese game developer has “regrettably decided to withdraw from the business of IO INTERACTIVE A/S” as of 31st March 2017.
As may have been suspected by such a huge decision, Square Enix also spoke about recent profits and losses in their statement, in which they said that “this decision has resulted in booking of the extraordinary loss amounting to 4,898 million yen”. 4,898 million yen is around 43 million US dollars, so we can see why this may have come as a bit of shock to the company. Because of this, IO Interactive has begun to look for potential new investors. Square Enix have currently said that they are currently not in the position to answer any specific questions or give further comments on their decision, leaving all us eager Hitman fans in the dark.
What will happen to IO Interactive?
Though it is not explicitly said in the full statement, it can be read out of it that, if IO Interactive do not find a buyer, the company may well have to shut down – meaning we may well never be able to play the long-awaited second series of Hitman. So let’s all keep our fingers crossed for IO Interactive and hope that they do find an investor as soon as possible so they can continue working on Hitman 2 without any worries
