Square-Enix trying to sell off IO Interactive (Hitman)

BananasWithGuns said:
Realistically speaking, what, if any, publishers would be interested?
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• I see MS maybe acquiring IO Interactive to work on a new service-based game IP.

• I want SIE to acquire them to reboot Syphon Filter.

• I wish Rockstar (can we count them as publishers too) would get them to work on the on-hiatus Agent project.

• I hope that Activision, EA or Ubisoft stay away from them as far as possible.
 
Green Ninja said:
Was Shadow of the tomb raider ever actually confirmed? I thought it was a rumor based on something some guy saw in a train.

Even if it was real I would have assumed it got scrapped in favor of Marvel projects once that deal was announced
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Not confirmed officially as far as I know but it was corroborated by Kotaku and other sources. And after the Square Enix and Marvel partnership announcement Eurogamer (who obviously have inside sources) said "most of the Deus Ex studio" is working on Shadow of the Tomb Raider. They said the Guardians project is only being worked on in the early pre-production stages by the small team assisting Crystal Dynamics with Avengers. So I think it's still happening, probably scheduled for late 2018.
 
I am not surprised that Hitman 2016 bombed. There was a lot of criticism for the episodic structure of the game, DENUVO, the always online authentication for a single player game, and timed exclusive missions. Admittedly, I never got the game because of the last two.

It's strange how the Eidos games within Square have been doing these stupid business practices. Deus Ex also had that augment your preorder crap that they went back on, but the game still had microtransactions and accompanied by Breach which was panned. There was also some buzz with Rise of the Tomb Raider for being a timed exclusive for Microsoft. It's like Square is deliberately trying to sabotage Eidos or Eidos are incompetent as hell.
 
Also, IO's community guy had a response prepared for this news on the Hitman community sites in less than half an hour. It boils down to "we'll get back to making games until we have something to announce."

So they have projects ongoing even though management must be in the middle of negotiations already. The new job postings must have been put up with knowledge of this. That's a positive sign.
 
TheTylerRob said:
Considering this and Street Fighter V I'm thinking this whole episodic thing is a bust unless you're Telltale.
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Episodic works fine for low budget games, which is what Telltale makes. Telltale would be extatic if all their games sold as well on PC as Hitman did.
 
IO's work with the most recent Hitman is quintessential series return to form. Tragic that Square-Enix is pulling the plug. IO deserve better.
 
Reminder that a whole contingent of people were out for blood for this game because of always-online, episodic, time-limited content, etc. See the persistent review-bombing on Steam for the first few months of the game.

Probably gleeful threads on the Steam forums celebrating this news right now.
 
Of course it sold like shit. It was a digital only episodic release. When they did release it physically, it got no promotion at all.

The game never even had a chance of mainstream success.
 
bigjig said:
Don't really know why you're blaming Square, blame all the people that didn't buy it
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Nah, they didnt market it properly.
Drm shit, flip flopping with their episodic model up until the last second, and not pushing the full season hard enough.

Plus it came off the heels of Absolution, which was shit, so they had to take this hit and push for season 2 with a better message and, this time, actual good word of mouth from fans of season 1.

IO produced a trully great game, SE let them down.
 
IdreamofHIME said:
They finally ​make a good game and this is the reward?
Tomb Raider and Deus Ex studios shitting themselves?
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S-E don't seem to know what to do with their big-budget western games. A few years ago things looked promising with Deus Ex (and Thief), Tomb Raider and Hitman, but S-E through a combination of bad management and unrealistic sales expectations have managed to screw all three series. Did they pick up any other big IPs with their Eidos acquisition?

Monty Mole said:
Hitman went ignored by so many due to its episodic nature, and then the retail release came and went with a whimper and no promotion. It's a shame.
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I wonder if it would have fared better if it had been an ordinary full release as opposed to the staggered digital release it had.

astrogamer said:
That's why they are working on Marvel games.
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They're apparently doing Shadow of the Tomb Raider first as well.
 
Square's Western branch have been mishandling a bunch of their IP's this gen in one way or another (Hitman, Deus Ex, Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs).

This one really hurts because it feels like they're punishing IO for "failing" under conditions that were almost certainly forced upon IO by Square themselves (the episodic, online-only, games as service stuff). The new Hitman game succeeded in spite of Square.

I'm not really liking the way Square Enix is going at the moment.
 
Triggerhappytel said:
S-E don't seem to know what to do with their big-budget western games. A few years ago things looked promising with Deus Ex (and Thief), Tomb Raider and Hitman, but S-E through a combination of bad management and unrealistic sales expectations have managed to screw all three series. Did they pick up any other big IPs with their Eidos acquisition?
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Legacy of Kain? They had that horrid Nosgoth online arena game.
 
NNNNOOOO!

I really liked the last Hitman game. I thought it was great and I liked the episodic nature of it.

I hope someone picks up IO and the Hitman IP and allows them to continue making it.
 
I know this is throwing out a curve ball but how about Starbreeze? They definitely have the money, they've teamed up with Lionsgate before and I know they want to turn John Wick into a universe with video games, TV shows and movies.

Why not an open world "The Continental" video game done by IO? They'd have to figure out how to combine gunplay with martial art combat but it could be pretty awesome if done right and expand on the underground society that people love about the films.
 
I see just two good endings for this.

1: Sony buys them and gives them Syphon Filter.

2: Microsoft buys them and gives them Perfect Dark.
 
Triggerhappytel said:
S-E don't seem to know what to do with their big-budget western games. A few years ago things looked promising with Deus Ex (and Thief), Tomb Raider and Hitman, but S-E through a combination of bad management and unrealistic sales expectations have managed to screw all three series. Did they pick up any other big IPs with their Eidos acquisition?



I wonder if it would have fared better if it had been an ordinary full release as opposed to the staggered digital release it had.



They're apparently doing Shadow of the Tomb Raider first as well.
Click to expand...

GeeTeeCee said:
Square's Western branch have been mishandling a bunch of their IP's this gen in one way or another (Hitman, Deus Ex, Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs).

This one really hurts because it feels like they're punishing IO for "failing" under conditions that were almost certainly forced upon IO by Square themselves (the episodic, online-only, games as service stuff). The new Hitman game succeeded in spite of Square.

I'm not really liking the way Square Enix is going at the moment.
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Are we so sure that all the Bad decision are not something the studio itself made?

SE Western side always irk me for some reason. From ballooning budget of the first TR. Dumb exclusivity of the sequel. Hitman fiasco. Deus Ex etc etc

I feels that these studio were given some degree of autonomy but took it for granted.
 
Castef said:
I see just two good endings for this.

1: Sony buys them and gives them Syphon Filter.

2: Microsoft buys them and gives them Perfect Dark.
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Lmao how is ending with Sony a good ending, have you not heard about all the fan favorite studios they've closed in the last 5 years?

Microsoft would be bad too but for different reasons
 
F4r0_Atak said:
• I wish Rockstar (can we count them as publishers too) would get them to work on the on-hiatus Agent project.
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Damn; that would actually work really well. I want this now!

KonradLaw said:
Episodic works fine for low budget games, which is what Telltale makes. Telltale would be extatic if all their games sold as well on PC as Hitman did.
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Telltale games seem to end up with really good lifetime sales on PC. The Walking Dead S1 has 2.2 million owners on Steam. S2 has 1.2 million. The Wolf Among Us has 1 million. Tales from the Borderlands has 650k sales. Their newer series seem to be in the few hundred thousand range, but I'm sure after a couple of years and some 50% discounts once the full series are out they'll end up with huge sales numbers.

Edge_Maverick said:
Since people are asking about sales:

Hitman Absolution: Owners: 3,020,229 ± 50,168
Hitman: Owners: 631,227 ± 23,003

Hitman Absolution also shipped 3.6 million in a few months whereas presumably Hitman is no where near that.
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The episodic nature hurt it no doubt. I was put off by it and only bought the game when it was a complete package. The game is really good. Wtf, they already said we were getting season 2? Maybe look at actually releasing games in a timely manner and not wasting millions on shitty tie in CGI movies and release date events and even then fail to hit that release date.
 
With the amount of praise hitman got im surprised it sold so little, especially when there was season two talk.

The Giant said:
Nintendo should buy them and make them create new mature ip's.
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Nintendo changed their stance on buying studios in the gamecube days. Now they farm out their ip. I agree though, would be nice to see Nintendo expand seeing as 3rd parties are reluctant to make the effort.

I feel like Microsoft might pick up the slack here tho.
 
Regarding those SteamSpy numbers, keep in mind that if someone only owns the intro pack, they count as an owner since it's all under the same app ID.... And a lot of people were put off by the online authentication stuff.
 
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