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Title: Square Enix dumping IO interactive - Hitman [s]may or[/s] may not be fucked Post by: eldaec on May 11, 2017, 02:45:53 AM Square Enix have announced they are cutting loose IOI to focus on core franchises. Release hints at a possible buyer.
Afaik the only things IO do are Hitman games, and Kane & Lynch. But nobody cares about Kane & Lynch. Hitman 2016 is actually pretty great and the only example I can think of where episodic content actually improved the experience. Hopefully the show goes on. Title: Re: Square Enix dumping IO interactive - Hitman may or may not be fucked Post by: Jeff Kelly on May 14, 2017, 07:45:08 AM IO Interactive will keep Hitman license post sale. Season 2 still in the works (http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/hitman/news/hitman_ist_gerettet,48985,3313967.html) (article in German).
Apparently they have it on good authority (100% trusted source) that IO has kept the Hitman license and that work on season 2 is going on as planned. Why Square Enix would shitcan such a successful property though is still inexplicable though. Title: Re: Square Enix dumping IO interactive - Hitman may or may not be fucked Post by: Kail on May 14, 2017, 11:02:34 AM Why Square Enix would shitcan such a successful property though is still inexplicable though. This is the same publisher that said the 3.5 million boxes Tomb Raider sold in one month was a failure. They may not use the same definition of success that we do on Earth. Title: Re: Square Enix dumping IO interactive - Hitman may or may not be fucked Post by: eldaec on May 15, 2017, 01:28:16 AM I'm not sure how successful hitman really is.
I get the impression Hitman 2016 didn't sell well. The concept of only having 6 levels, released one at a time, must have been hard to sell. I think it has made the game far better than it otherwise would be. But hard to sell. I suspect a lot of people waited until all 6 levels were available and discounted. OTOH Square have form for burning assets to fuel more shitty Final Fantasy games. See also Tomb Raider, Deus Ex... Title: Re: Square Enix dumping IO interactive - Hitman may or may not be fucked Post by: Jeff Kelly on May 15, 2017, 04:53:47 AM The last number I could find was 3.5 million by the end of 2016. IO never revealed actual sales data (because Square Enix doesn't do that) but in all interviews the CEO of IO claimed that he was "pretty happy" about the sales figures and that he "considers it a success". I guess it was probably Tomb Raider numbers or a bit lower, so the 3 - 3.5 Million ballpark seems right.
Which makes it a successfull game. Not by Square Enix Standards though. They announced way back when the Tomb Raider Remake had been released that they were disappointed with the sales figures of that title and that they were targeting 5 million+ per title and would only Focus on titles that could bring those sales. Which is insane if you're not Activision or EA and you're not selling Call of Duty or Battlefield but Square Enix seems to still operate under the mindset of Final Fantasy being relevant. Also Sqenix issued a loss warning. Apparently taking ten years to make one Final Fantasy is not a great idea. They made a huge loss in the last financial year and they probably need to sell assets. Title: Re: Square Enix dumping IO interactive - Hitman may or may not be fucked Post by: Druzil on May 15, 2017, 08:04:58 AM In regards to Final Fantasy being relevant - I spent a few minutes looking through the documents and looking up sales. It looks to me like FFXV sold somewhere between 4.5-6 million units, plus some amount of seasons passes. Even though FFXIV's numbers are down, the numbers are still pretty big. Also SE's total revenue this year was up ~40% and they posted a ~$175M profit (which includes the looses from IOI). The 40% was attributed to Final Fantasy XV, Deus Ex and Tomb Raider. So - it still looks like it's relevant to me.
Looking at the loss warning, it reads like it only dealt with realizing the development costs of season 2 of Hitman and has nothing to do with 10 years of FF development. Title: Re: Square Enix dumping IO interactive - Hitman may or may not be fucked Post by: Jeff Kelly on May 15, 2017, 08:28:23 AM Yeah but not that much higher than their other franchises. They wouldn't talk about disappointing Tomb Raider sales though if they thought 4.5 million was great.
I think they still think that FF will sell upwards of 8 or 10 million, like in the nineties. 3.5 mill would be a veritable success for any other tier 2 publisher and Sqenix is no longer a AAA publisher. Title: Re: Square Enix dumping IO interactive - Hitman may or may not be fucked Post by: 01101010 on May 15, 2017, 09:05:35 AM In regards to Final Fantasy being relevant - I spent a few minutes looking through the documents and looking up sales. It looks to me like FFXV sold somewhere between 4.5-6 million units, plus some amount of seasons passes. Even though FFXIV's numbers are down, the numbers are still pretty big. Also SE's total revenue this year was up ~40% and they posted a ~$175M profit (which includes the looses from IOI). The 40% was attributed to Final Fantasy XV, Deus Ex and Tomb Raider. So - it still looks like it's relevant to me. Looking at the loss warning, it reads like it only dealt with realizing the development costs of season 2 of Hitman and has nothing to do with 10 years of FF development. I'd play FF14 in a minute on the PS4 if it didn't have a sub. Title: Re: Square Enix dumping IO interactive - Hitman may or may not be fucked Post by: eldaec on October 25, 2017, 04:40:38 AM In the end ioi got a management buyout and took hitman with them.
https://www.ioi.dk/hitman-goty-edition-announcement/ Announcement has 4 new missions in existing maps and they are rerunning the elusive targets. The other extra missions in existing maps were fairly substantial reworks so this looks like good news that the lights are still on. |