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NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

How Hitman Absolution’s wasteful toilets taught IO Interactive to make sustainable AAA games
Plus! The firm's live-service approach to single-player James Bond

IO is prudent with its budgets, says CEO Hakan Abrak, and takes a long-term view when it comes to these franchises.
"I was the executive producer on [2012's] Hitman Absolution, and I swore never to do more new toilets. We were just doing new everything. It was just a throwaway. When we were doing the initial foundation on Hitman 2016, we built it in a way where we would do smart reuse.
"Without being too precise, Hitman 2016… let's say it was a $100 million game. Hitman 2 was maybe $60 million. Hitman 3 was $20 million. And Hitman 3 was the highest Metacritic. It was 85, 84, and 87 Metacritic. And it had very unique new locations. Obviously, there's a bigger investment into Bond. It's a more expensive and ambitious product. But the way we build it, the longevity… if we were to look at sequel at one point, who knows? At IO, we have a really, really good way of trying to be efficient. That's extremely important to us."
He added: "With Absolution, we wasted so much. It was a wasteful production. As studio production director back then, I completely changed our thinking. The World of Assassination is a vision that started 13, 14 ago years ago. Building this foundation, the brick system as we call it, where we can make an experience, like [new Hitman mission featuring Mads Mikkelsen] very quickly and efficiently. This was a really part of us creating sustainable AAA production. I'm not going to sit here and say we are doing everything right. We'll keep on trying to improve and be less wasteful, but still super ambitious."