Hitman 3 has been incredibly successful, so much so developer IO Interactive has grand plans for the future of their company. Today they announced the opening of a new studio in Barcelona, making this the third IO Interactive studio alongside IOI Copenhagen and IOI Malmö. The studio will work on “all ongoing projects and universes,” including a new unannounced IP.
Details on the brand new IP are yet to be revealed, although we do know it’s in active development. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, CEO Hakan Abrak stated it’s one of four IPs they’ve created from scratch alongside Hitman and Project 007, although the others seemingly remain in the incubation and R&D stages at the moment. He also described it as “a bit different and absolutely a love child. It is something our core people, our veteran staff, have been dreaming about for some time.”
IO also promised more to come from the Hitman universe, even if “Agent 47 needs a bit of a breather.” While this means there won’t be a new Hitman game anytime soon, the content will still continue to roll out for Hitman 3, especially as the game is now three times more commercially successful than Hitman 2. The Season of Greed is in progress and there are three days left for players to take out the game’s third Elusive Target if they haven’t done so already. There’s also another Elusive Target, another batch of Featured Contracts and an Escalation to arrive this season. Starter Pack players won’t miss out either, as the Landslide mission is now available to play in Sapienza for free until April 25; this is also free for Hitman 3 players for the same period of time.
The new studio already has a core team in place but are recruiting right now. Abrak stated that between the three studios, there are more than 200 employees. Within the next 2-4 years, they’re hoping the number of staff doubles in size as work continues on their ongoing projects. They also aim to move into publishing too, and not just publishing their own titles—they’ll be looking to publish games from other developers in the future.
[Source: IO Interactive, GamesIndustry.biz]
