IO Interactive is Now an Independent Studio with the Hitman IP

IO Interactive has completed a management buyout from Square Enix and is now an independent studio.

Back in early May, news broke that Square Enix was looking to sell off Hitman developer IO Interactive. As time passed, Sqaure said that would be willing to let the rights to Hitman go with the studio, and IO laid off some staff in preparation for whatever might come. But this morning, there’s some good news: IO Interactive has announced that it is now an independent studio.

The announcement comes from IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak, who said,

“I am proud to announce today that IOI is now officially an independent studio. We have successfully concluded our negotiations with Square Enix and have agreed to a management buyout. Crucially, we will keep all of the rights to the Hitman IP.”

There’s been plenty of speculation as to what was going to happen with the hitman IP, but this is probably the one outcome I hadn’t heard bandied about. We’ve already heard that the developer plans to ditch the episodic model for Hitman, and we’ll likely hear more in the near future about its plans for the series going forward.

Here’s the full statement from IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak:

In its 19 years of history, Io-Interactive has brought you original and exciting entertainment; from Mini Ninjas and Freedom Fighters to gaming’s most notorious criminals Kane & Lynch and of course our beloved Agent 47. With our latest game, we have not only transformed Hitman, but also moved our entire studio into the AAA digital era. Our live product has disrupted the video game business and has received recognition and praise from press, community and our fans.

There are many tales of hope, dreams, hardship and joy within these walls. We have never strived for the expected or predictable. Instead, we are always in pursuit for what feels original and real. Our passion and determination has never been greater and so that is why we have decided it is not the time to stop as we have many more exciting and original tales to tell.

Therefore I am proud to announce today that IOI is now officially an independent studio. We have successfully concluded our negotiations with Square Enix and have agreed to a management buyout. Crucially, we will keep all of the rights to the Hitman IP.

This is a watershed moment for IOI. As of today, we have complete control over the direction for our studio and the Hitman IP – we’re about to forge our own future and it’s incredibly exciting. We are now open to opportunities with future collaborators and partners to help strengthen us as a studio and ensure that we can produce the best games possible for our community.

I would like to say a big and sincere thank you to all of our players, community, friends in the media and everyone else connected to the studio for the messages of support that we have received in the last few weeks. I would also like to thank Square Enix; it has been a great family to be a part of and we are proud of what we have achieved together in the last eight years. IOI started as an independent studio and we will now return to those roots with an extremely passionate and talented team.

We are counting on the continued support of all our players; simply by having fun with everything we’ve released so far for HITMAN – and we want to encourage more of you to try our game. We have more details to come on our plans for that next week.

Thank you.

Hakan,

Io-Independent