The head of Square Enix explained the parting with the Hitman franchise
In May of this year, the Danish studio IO Interactive left Square Enix and took with it the flagship Hitman franchise. The president of Square Enix, Yosuke Matsuda, admitted that he left Hitman to the creators because he loves this game too much.
“I am convinced that no one but IO will be able to make Hitman the way we know it. I love this game and believe that the rest of the fans of the series think the same way,” Matsuda said.
For the same reason, Square Enix decided not to sell the studio to other owners, but to allow them to buy out and go into independent swimming. Under the terms of the buyout of its share, IO Interactive became the sole recipient of income from the Hitman franchise.
Square Enix abandoned IO Interactive due to lack of budgets. Despite the successful relaunch of the Hitman series in 2016, Square’s management decided that they could not afford to invest in the second and third seasons while simultaneously developing other projects.
The departure of IO Interactive cost Square Enix $43 million, but these losses were considered acceptable in order not to incur more losses in the future.
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