For some developers, they end up becoming so tied to one property the two names become that synonymous with one another. Such is the case of IO Interactive, who have been married to the Hitman franchise, of which the latest game is planned to come out soon. However, they are hoping to change that down the road.
In an interview with Game Informer, Hakan Abrak, the CEO of IO Interactive, said they hope that they can be known as more than just the ‘Hitman dev.’ He points to the recently announced James Bond title the developer will be involved with hopefully being seen as the first step into the studio having a diverse and creative line of new IPs.
“Hitman and IO Interactive are very, very closely knit, obviously. But I think, moving forward, IO should not necessarily be mentioned as ‘The Hitman studio IO Interactive,’ but first and foremost, people should think about IO Interactive as IO Interactive first, creators of different IPs and a place of creativity where Hitman is definitely one of our children, but there are going to be more children in the future. And one of them is 007.”
Hitman 3 is set to release across most major platforms on January 20th. Project 007 has been announced, though as of now no time frame or platforms have been attached to it.