Square Enix Drops Hitman Developer IO Interactive

Megalith

Megalith

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More bad gaming industry news: Square Enix is selling Hitman developer IO Interactive and putting the future of the franchise in doubt. The good news is that the last game was great, so if the series does end, it did so with a bang and not a whimper—but I imagine the talents at IO will be picked up by another company soon. This follows Square Enix’s decision to can the Deus Ex series.

IO's troubles will come as a shock to many, given last year's Hitman turned out to be one of the best Hitman games ever and certainly one of Square Enix's best games in recent memory. But did it sell well enough for the suits at Square Enix? The new Hitman was sold as an episodic title before being bundled together on disc. IO has also continued to support Hitman with a raft of updates and in-game events (May marks the 14th consecutive month of new content releases into the game), and players had expected season two to kick off sooner rather than later.
 
I didn't realize they were killing off Deus Ex....I had just gotten over my waiting for HL3 phase and today I find out Mass Effect AND Deus Ex are dead in the water.
 
Pusher of Buttons said:
I didn't realize they were killing off Deus Ex....I had just gotten over my waiting for HL3 phase and today I find out Mass Effect AND Deus Ex are dead in the water.
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As far as I'm concerned, Square Enix can kill off all these legacy Eidos series as long as they keep making games like NieR: Automata, and mainline Dragon Quest games.
 
hitman didn't sell well because it was't sold like a game. It was sold as a multi-part dlc game where each episode would be sold after a while.
 
Ihaveworms said:
Luckily we still have cd projekt red making good single player games.
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Hopefully Cyberpunk is good, please be good. Thankfully Witcher can fund that, problem is that with the widespread popularity if they do a 4th I have a feeling more people will call them on "Hey this is the same game as before" like witcher 3 felt identical to 1&2 with some pretty dull gameplay. Entirely new game will save them from having a similar fate I hope, at least they were smart enough to know their bread and butter series was milked to the limit most likely.
 
Hypergreatthing said:
hitman didn't sell well because it was't sold like a game. It was sold as a multi-part dlc game where each episode would be sold after a while.
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Pretty much this. I know the price wasn't as high in the beginning, but even if you considered the "DLC" to be part of the game cost, it still cost more, and still ran on retreads of the same few maps.
 
Pusher of Buttons said:
I didn't realize they were killing off Deus Ex....I had just gotten over my waiting for HL3 phase and today I find out Mass Effect AND Deus Ex are dead in the water.
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Part of me is sad but Deux Ex was such a crashing mess, I still cannot properly play so I've all but abandoned the game. I love the original Deus Ex though, huge fan of it but that was and ION Storm game. RIP Ion Storm.
 
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Hypergreatthing said:
hitman didn't sell well because it was't sold like a game. It was sold as a multi-part dlc game where each episode would be sold after a while.
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Yeah, Hitman isnt the type of game that should be sold in episodes.
Hopefully this news and Deus EX sends a message to the industry that gamers want complete games.....not pieces!
There's a difference between DLC and selling incomplete games in pieces.
 
I didn't buy last Hitman because of the episodic nature of the game and I am a big Hitman fan, I'm sure I am not the only one.
 
Hypergreatthing said:
hitman didn't sell well because it was't sold like a game. It was sold as a multi-part dlc game where each episode would be sold after a while.
Click to expand...

Square can blame themselves for it not selling.


What a stupid idea.
 
I was upset with the episodic nature at first, but I waited until all the episodes in the "season" were out and bought the complete first season for $59.99, the price of a normal game. It took me only 4 hours less to beat than Hitman Absolution (20 vs 24) so I was a tad displeased at FIRST. But Hitman (this new one) offers so much replay value its absurd. I LOVE this game. I have 63 hours in now and my interest is just now starting to fade a bit.

60 hours of gameplay is pretty good considering "story games" are lucky to be 10 hours long these days. My favorite Hitman game of all time is Blood Money. I would throw money at them if they just re-created all the Blood Money levels into the new Hitman. The price when you really look at it isn't off from other normal top dollar games vs play time.

If you love Hitman, you'd be a fool not to pick this up, even if the actual "Story" has no ending at the moment.
 
MrTroy03 said:
I was upset with the episodic nature at first, but I waited until all the episodes in the "season" were out and bought the complete first season for $59.99, the price of a normal game. It took me only 4 hours less to beat than Hitman Absolution (20 vs 24) so I was a tad displeased at FIRST. But Hitman (this new one) offers so much replay value its absurd. I LOVE this game. I have 63 hours in now and my interest is just now starting to fade a bit.

60 hours of gameplay is pretty good considering "story games" are lucky to be 10 hours long these days. My favorite Hitman game of all time is Blood Money. I would throw money at them if they just re-created all the Blood Money levels into the new Hitman. The price when you really look at it isn't off from other normal top dollar games vs play time.

If you love Hitman, you'd be a fool not to pick this up, even if the actual "Story" has no ending at the moment.
Click to expand...

I was worried about the "Episodes" too, but the game was awesome. I was eagerly awaiting season 2. More people should have played it.
 
I picked up HItman after it was complete... and on sale.
Countless hours of fun in it. They'll have no problems getting picked up by someone else, and making "Season 2".
 
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