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

I

InsaneTiger

Member
Squeenix has not been a good publisher for the Eidos properties.

They mishandled Deus Ex.

Expected way to high of sales for TRR causing them to be disappointed (this was before it was ported to current-gen)

Well, their handling of IO speaks for itself.

Squeenix seems to only be able to handle two things, FF and DQ.
 
N

NaviLink

Member
x1aG633.png


I'm sorry but I had to.

Super dumb decision by Square-Enix, who have been clueless about sales projections for years.
 
O

Obliterator

Member
I'm not too surprised by this. People seemed to really dig Hitman who played it, but I never saw a lot of evidence it was really selling all that well.

Hope IO will find a buyer and no one loses their jobs. They seem to be a talented studio so I think there is talent there worth investing in. I think they'll get one of the major publishers to invest u less the price tag is too steep.
 
M

Mooreberg

Member
The Hermit said:
People don't like to buy games in episodes.

Ie: street fighter V
Click to expand...
Pretty much. There are people who will enjoy playing single episodes over and over, several on here have posted screenshots of 100+ hours on Steam. But most of the people a game like this needs to sell to like to play point A to point Z and then move on to the next game. That crowd was lost with the episodic release. People who are waiting for the retail release eventually move on, and it keeps the price artificially inflated upon release, relative to when the game was supposed to be out.
 
I

InsaneTiger

Member
The Hermit said:
People don't like to buy games in episodes.

Ie: street fighter V
Click to expand...

The messaging was confusing and bad. First saying it would be a full release then going back to saying it was episodic. But once released it was realized how well it worked for Hitman. I believe Absolution did some real damage because of how broken the game was and that it was not a good Hitmam game. This caused people to be wary of HITMAM 2016, which I understand.
 
TGO

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Its a great game..
But I spent over a year waiting for a physical release and it was released during a time many new games was released. My hype was gone.
If they just released it physical and didn't do the stupid episodic release it would have sold better and the hype for the game would have been fresh.
Not sure if I can blame SE as I'm sure IO had a say in the episodic release.
Just like CD did in the Xbox exclusive deal with Tomb Raider.
It was a bad call and maybe SE should have said no.
I rather IO remained at SE and continue making Hitman.
But It was obvious SE was expecting big numbers for Hitman and you don't do big numbers releasing digitally only and episodic.
 
D

Deadstar

Member
TGO said:
Its a great game..
But I spent over a year waiting for a physical release and it was released during a time many new games was released. My hype was gone.
If they just released it physical and didn't do the stupid episodic release it would have sold better and the hype for the game would have been fresh.
Not sure if I can blame SE as I'm sure IO had a say in the episodic release.
Just like CD did in the Xbox exclusive deal with Tomb Raider.
It was a bad call and maybe SE should have said no.
I rather IO remained at SE and continue making Hitman.
But It was obvious SE was expecting big numbers for Hitman and you don't do big numbers releasing digitally only and episodic.
Click to expand...

There was hype EVERY MONTH they released a new episode versus hype ONCE on initial release. They should have just taken out the always online stuff. I'm not sure why that was in there. I blame people on steam complaining that they have 56k internet and keep getting disconnected. I've had ONE disconnect in over 100 hours of playing.
 
J

Javier23

Banned
InsaneTiger said:
The messaging was confusing and bad. First saying it would be a full release then going back to saying it was episodic. But once released it was realized how well it worked for Hitman. I believe Absolution did some real damage because of how broken the game was and that it was not a good Hitmam game. This caused people to be wary of HITMAM 2016, which I understand.
Click to expand...
Absolution wasn't broken, at all. It even did many interesting things that later showed up in Hitman 2016. It wasn't a Hitman game, it's why people hated it.
 
F

Foffy

Banned
InsaneTiger said:
Squeenix has not been a good publisher for the Eidos properties.

They mishandled Deus Ex.

Expected way to high of sales for TRR causing them to be disappointed (this was before it was ported to current-gen)

Well, their handling of IO speaks for itself.

Squeenix seems to only be able to handle two things, FF and DQ.
Click to expand...

S-E has done a terrible job of handling DQ outside of Japan, though...
 
D

Deadstar

Member
I hope Sega buys them along with the IP so it stays on steam. Having Microsoft or Sony buy them would be a disaster if it's console only or windows store exclusive.
 
S

Saty

Member
Steamspy numbers aren't complete. Remember, this is an episodic games where everything but the original package is under DLC and isn't traced. Unless i'm getting it wrong, the 600k number is only people who bought the intro pack.

And if it's 600k on PC alone surely the Xbox and PS sales are through the roof like people always say right?
 
I

ieptbarakat

Member
InsaneTiger said:
Squeenix has not been a good publisher for the Eidos properties.

They mishandled Deus Ex.

Expected way to high of sales for TRR causing them to be disappointed (this was before it was ported to current-gen)

Well, their handling of IO speaks for itself.

Squeenix seems to only be able to handle two things, FF and DQ.
Click to expand...

You can see their contempt for Eidos games just by how they price their stuff on the market, whenever there is a Square-Enix sale or giveaway it's almost always exclusively Eidos games and the games from the Square side are always at a premium price.
 
A

afternoon delight

Member
Sinatar said:
You liking it doesn't make it a viable product for selling to a mass market. Your average gamer is going to go to best buy and drop $60 on a full game, releasing it piecemeal like this was a mistake from a *sales* perspective.
Click to expand...
Agreed, especially for a core single player experience.
 
V

Vibranium

Banned
Does IO own the Freedom Fighters IP, or is it still with EA? That's the one potential IP for them other than starting anew with a new property and publisher.
 
SicSemperTyrannis

SicSemperTyrannis

Member
Has anyone else connected this news with the fact that Phil Spencer was recently talking about how well episodic content would fit with Game Pass and how they'll be increasing first party investments?

Not that they ARE connected, but the timing is coincidental.
 
KingdomHeartsFan

KingdomHeartsFan

Member
Unless it was IO's idea to release Hitman the way they did this sounds really dumb, even if it was this sounds dumb. That being said I did not buy Hitman because of the gimped physical release SE put out and I was planning on just waiting for a complete edition.
 
J

Javier23

Banned
InsaneTiger said:
You can't be serious. It was so broken, disguises were worthless as well as the checkpoint system. Terrible.
Click to expand...
Disguises worked perfectly fine for me throughout the whole game. As did the checkpoint system ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Played the game in the last difficulty level right before the one that removes the entire HUD, whatever's the name, for reference. Had a blast going in expecting a linear stealth game.

EDIT: That's "Expert" from what I'm reading. It also says there's no checkpoints available at that difficulty level. Huh. Dunno, maybe they are broken in some way in lower difficulty levels and that's why I never noticed anything wrong with those.
 
S

sam777

Member
SicSemperTyrannis said:
Has anyone else connected this news with the fact that Phil Spencer was recently talking about how well episodic content would fit with Game Pass and how they'll be increasing first party investments?

Not that they ARE connected, but the timing is coincidental.
Click to expand...

Doubt they are linked but I can see MS being interested.
 
S

Shaanyboi

Banned
TGO said:
Its a great game..
But I spent over a year waiting for a physical release and it was released during a time many new games was released. My hype was gone.
If they just released it physical and didn't do the stupid episodic release it would have sold better and the hype for the game would have been fresh.
Not sure if I can blame SE as I'm sure IO had a say in the episodic release.
Just like CD did in the Xbox exclusive deal with Tomb Raider.
It was a bad call and maybe SE should have said no.
I rather IO remained at SE and continue making Hitman.
But It was obvious SE was expecting big numbers for Hitman and you don't do big numbers releasing digitally only and episodic.
Click to expand...
I was hyped for Hitman literally every few weeks because they'd drop an Elusive Target and an occasional new map. This went on for months.

A standard physical release would have let conversations die after just a few weeks.
 
D

Deadstar

Member
I blame all the people with bad taste who didn't buy the game. You did this. Keep buying your generic shooters. Let all the good companies die.
 
J

JigglesBunny

Banned
ArkhamFantasy said:
SE had record breaking profit for the company the last 3 years.
Click to expand...
Okay, in repute then. Square has been screwing every pooch they have in the western market.

Tomb Raider had that awful business deal that only wound up causing some big damage in sales numbers, Just Cause 3 was a total disaster, Deus Ex was DOA, the Thief reboot was not only a flop but soured the entire fan base and now HItman might be going the way of the dodo because of the IO sale.

They don't have a hint of how to manage their IP in the west. They better thank the stars that the western market has been receptive of those Kingdom Hearts remasters and FFXV, that's about the only bridge they haven't burned.
 
D

DukeBobby

Member
So, Hitman is dead, Deus Ex is dead, and Dishonored and Prey will soon be dead.

I guess great level design in western games is dead too.
 
O

OniBaka

Member
Deadstar said:
I blame all the people with bad taste who didn't buy the game. You did this. Keep buying your generic shooters. Let all the good companies die.
Click to expand...
I was waiting for the disc version, however it came out in a packed month. Gravity rush 2, resident evil 7, tales of berseria and Yakuza 0 and awesome games never stopped coming months after.

It's only now where I have time to try hit man.
 
C

cilonen

Member
InsaneTiger said:
Squeenix has not been a good publisher for the Eidos properties.

They mishandled Deus Ex.

Expected way to high of sales for TRR causing them to be disappointed (this was before it was ported to current-gen)

Well, their handling of IO speaks for itself.

Squeenix seems to only be able to handle two things, FF and DQ.
Click to expand...

I don't think they can handle FF either TBH.
 
I

Iksenpets

Banned
I didn't think Hitman lit up the sales charts, but those numbers are worse than I would've thought. The buzz that game had among press and enthusiasts just didn't translate at all to more casual markets I guess. Probably one of the biggest gaps between those two audiences I can remember in a while.

Super sad to see though. It sounded like they were working on season 2 and just had the rug pulled out from under them.
 
F

Foffy

Banned
Iksenpets said:
I didn't think Hitman lit up the sales charts, but those numbers are worse than I would've thought. The buzz that game had among press and enthusiasts just didn't translate at all to more casual markets I guess. Probably one of the biggest gaps between those two audiences I can remember in a while.

Super sad to see though. It sounded like they were working on season 2 and just had the rug pulled out from under them.
Click to expand...

I assume even for episodic games they make most of their money within 90 days.

HITMAN Season One -- or do we now just refer to it as HITMAN...? -- wasn't even reasonably fleshed out to the quality people praise within those 90 days...
 
L

leburn98

Member
Hopefully someone picks them up, even without the Hitman license.

Maybe their next game could be a spiritual successor to Hitman called Assassin 74, a bald assassin who has a QR code tattooed to the back of his head.
 
D

Dinky Dino

Member
Honestly it seems like a lot of these titles aren't selling as much as they used to. Like deus ex as well. Wonder why. Stuff like GTA still sells a ridiculous amount but most other AAAs fall short.
 
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