Hitman 3 released last week to critical acclaim. According to GamesIndustry.biz, developer IO Interactive has now revealed the game has recouped its development costs in just seven days since its release.
IOI decided to self-publish Hitman 3 this time, deciding not to go with Warner Bros. who published Hitman 2. They did have a partnership with Square Enix to publish the physical version of the game in some regions, something of a surprise bearing in mind the company “lost faith” in the franchise after Hitman had disappointing sales. IOI also decided to keep marketing and PR close to the development team, helping to reduce costs. IOI CEO Hakan Abrak explains how this helped:
We’ve been able to create a game that our players will love and bring it to them in the most direct way possible; developed and published by IOI. Having that focus early on has kept us on a path that we all believed in. Everyone at the studio was behind the vision for the game and they know the Hitman universe better than anyone.
That combination makes us very effective as a publisher because we have our creative and development teams working closely with publishing and marketing throughout the entire project. We need that collaboration because we all want to create a quality product.
Abrak states the team has “been really happy with the Hitman 3 journey.” After the game made its debut at the top of the UK sales charts, this should come as little surprise. The title reaching profitability so quickly puts them in a really good place to move forward with their future titles:
We demand of each other that our games are hand-crafted, meticulously detailed and unique. At this point, we’d be doing our community a disservice if we delivered anything less than that. They’re used to us setting a really high bar for quality and memorable experiences, so we keep that mentality at the front of our mind, not only for Hitman but also our future projects.
Those future projects include Project 007, of course, and the potential trilogy to come out of that. Everything looks promising for a James Bond universe that will keep us entertained for a while to come.
[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]
