Glass Shark
Banned
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Square-Enix trying to sell off IO Interactive (Hitman)
- Thread starter Edge_Maverick
- Start date
wesleyshark
Banned
Hitman was my GOTY for 16 also. Sigh.Aww
Hitman was my fave game of 2016.
erotic grandpa
Member
Pretty sure that's never been the appeal of the series, or why folks enjoyed this last game.
Value proposition is a big deal with gamers these days, and the way the content volume perception and sale price curves of episodic games work do not jive well with that.I think people didn't respond well at all to the episodic/piecemeal nature of Hitman. I guess that only works for Telltale?
It's a game that sells on shock value. It's basically Man Hunt.
Karspankey
Banned
Yup. I wouldn't have sunk 20 hours into every episode if they weren't spaced out like they were.
letmetrythisname
Member
Not surprising that the year's best game sold like crap. Truly too good for the mainstream market.
Deadpool_X
Banned
Nintendo could use a studio dedicated to mature games. Imagine this team under Nintendo's guidance.
Hitman Kart with some really nasty weapons
TetraGenesis
Member
What does this mean for Season 2??
As great as the game is, episodic stuff + force online bullshit and terrible UI push me out for the rest of the season after playing 2 episodes, it's probably why I stopped buying TTG games too.
I hope someone will get the studio though, they're very talented and can produce stellar shit, good luck.
I hope someone will get the studio though, they're very talented and can produce stellar shit, good luck.
TetraGenesis
Member
Square Enix is the shittiest fucking publisher, I swear to god.
ModernBoxes
Banned
Good and bad games affect the sales of their sequels.
Business is weird in that, they struggle to figure out elements that makes a thing sell but are willingly ignorant if a bad game is successful or a good game isn't.
Business is weird in that, they struggle to figure out elements that makes a thing sell but are willingly ignorant if a bad game is successful or a good game isn't.
Pretty sad news to wake up to, especially if they plan to hold onto the IP. Hitman 2016 was my first Hitman experience and it kept me coming back all year, ended up enamored with it and was really looking forward to IO Interactive continuing where they left off. Big fan of their sensibilities as a developer.
This move signals zero patience from SE for building the brand back up after a lackluster predecessor and a different delivery model that had to win skeptical fans over. That episodic model is actually what drew me in, and even if sales never caught fire I don't think the complete release arrived with the marketing push a GOTY candidate deserves either. Even so I'd imagine Season 2 would be in a better place to be a financial success now that the episodic framework had been honed and the franchise reestablished. Sigh. This sucks.
This move signals zero patience from SE for building the brand back up after a lackluster predecessor and a different delivery model that had to win skeptical fans over. That episodic model is actually what drew me in, and even if sales never caught fire I don't think the complete release arrived with the marketing push a GOTY candidate deserves either. Even so I'd imagine Season 2 would be in a better place to be a financial success now that the episodic framework had been honed and the franchise reestablished. Sigh. This sucks.
I generally agree with you but in this instance I think the proof is in the sales.
Jaccan
Neo Member
I wonder what this all means considering IO was hiring for a new IP and Hitman Season 2 was greenlighted (or am I imagining stuff?).
Source: http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/20170511_01en.pdf
// Mod Edit:
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.
Can´t say it comes as a surprise. Hitman did really bad so i guess in a record year it´s bad to be the only division that stands out with a loss.
But IO interactive will be picked up no doubt.
More_Badass
Member
Fuck
Hitman is such an important series to me (Blood Money made me a lifelong fan of the steath genre) and there's nothing else like it.
What are the likely outcomes here?
Hitman is such an important series to me (Blood Money made me a lifelong fan of the steath genre) and there's nothing else like it.
What are the likely outcomes here?
funkystudent
Member
Without some IP and a game in deep production I wouldn't count on it.
Most pubs might just let the studio die and pick up talent on the cheap. That's what happened when MS tried to sell Lionhead but keep the Fable IP
I also don't understand their decision to make marvel games, pushing every other western title they own to the side with the exception of Tomb Raider which they probably didn't cancel only because it was so far into development.
Their marvel project will likely lead to the closure of many of their subsidiaries in the west.
Either they're shut down since no one wanted the studio or someone buys the studio with the Hitman IP. I dont see anyone buying the studio w/o the IP
arturo2666
Banned
I dunno, I think there's a lot of baggage with the Hitman series that weighed down the new game, in terms of expectations from players (i.e. a lot of people had already written off the franchise). Publishers may be interested in buying a dev team that is currently at its here-to-fore peak and obviously has a lot of talented people.
Drillary Clinton
Banned
Gotta have shmoneys for the Marvels
FrontalMonk
Banned
Maybe so, but the baggage was borne out of apprehension at the prospect that the IOI team hadn't learned the right lessons in Absolution's aftermath.
Hitman as a brand has been completely redeemed, and it's riding high right now. I honestly feel like if things had gone on without this announcement S2 would significantly outsell S1 by virtue of the fact that they've proven themselves, but this throws a ton of uncertainty into the mix.
After hearing about Mass Effect being put on ice and then this, it's been one hit after another. My next expectation is to never get news on Diablo after the Necromancer drops.
TetraGenesis
Member
The game was critically well-received. This is a fault of the marketing which suffered under SE's oversight.
PhantomThief
Banned
Fuck
Yautja_Warrior
Member
Well this sucks, Hopefully someone buys them, so they don't get shut down and can deliver Hitman Season 2.
Perfect opportunity for Microsoft to step in and bag a developer here, they keep saying they want to invest in more studio's, well here's there chance to invest and bag them the Hitman IP too.
Perfect opportunity for Microsoft to step in and bag a developer here, they keep saying they want to invest in more studio's, well here's there chance to invest and bag them the Hitman IP too.
MaKTaiL
Member
It didn't.
PhantomThief
Banned
Microsoft.. lol.
megathemiis
Member
Yesterday it was Mass Effect, today it is Hitman...Really sad news for me personally, as I love the franchise and the stealth genre in general. I hope IO will survive this difficult period.
Snacks the sober sea lion
Member
What? Huh? How do you even come to that conclusion? Hitman 2016 barely has any blood, it has no gore, barely any profanity (we aren't going to talk about Absolution), the story is all just people talking about politics and secret plans.
TetraGenesis
Member
So would SE retain the IP or not? There seems to be confusion here.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
No. Fuck. Noooo
Duxxy3
Member
I didn't touch Hitman, in part, because of those two reasons. I also enjoyed Hitman Absolution.
awilliams213
Member
Hitman Season 1 was just amazing. I pushed so many copies on my friends, the stories we would tell about experiences were endless. Its a shame unless a game does GTA numbers its considered a wash
MaKTaiL
Member
I'll never buy a Square game ever again. They claim they are having huge losses? Well, I hope they die.
Ultimately I blame Neogaf for the bad initial press the game received couple of weeks prior to launch and it hurt the game badly. It did manage to prove everyone wrong, but nobody payed attention.
Episodic release is exactly what made HITMAN so great in the first place. Ask anyone who actually owns the game and you will get the same answer. You can also play the game offline. "Online only" is false. You might not have access to challanges or other activities but the main game can be played entirely offline.
Ultimately I blame Neogaf for the bad initial press the game received couple of weeks prior to launch and it hurt the game badly. It did manage to prove everyone wrong, but nobody payed attention.
I feel that the acknowledgement that IOI is for sale without already having found a buyer means that they will keep the IP unless a very good offer comes for IOI.
Otherwise they'll close the studio - I assume that is what the writeoff amount includes.
Yeah, I am considering this. I stopped buying FF games anyway because they just turned out shit, but man...
Does it take a scientist to tell why this video got over a million views? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VeR8ZhishVw
Also Absolution was a straight up slasher game. Stabbing people in the spine with butcher knives is tame to you? Or murdering an entire jury in real time a subtle thing?
The decent thing would be to give IO the IP, which would make a purchase more attractive.
IO just produced one of the best Hitman games ever; I doubt anyone else is going to do any better. Given that SE don't want IO, they obviously aren't fussed about Hitman, so holding on to it would be needlessly greedy. I know, that's not how business works, but I can hope.
PhantomThief
Banned
No it isn't. It really isn't.
Yes, they're a business.
grandwizard
Member
God damn this news is terrible. An amazing return to form like Hitman fails and other high quality immersive sims like Prey, Dishonored 2 and Mankind Divided undersell. I don't think we'll have such a high water mark for quality released in such a short span of time again any time soon.
They just had their best year ever. The extraordinary loss of ~33m is the projected result of losing IO.
lol. talk about clueless.