Is Hitman 3 Worth it?

IO Interactive has been riding a wave of success that started when the company regained their independence from Square Enix. After what Square Enix considered a failure with Hitman (2016), the publisher began shopping the studio around for potential buyers but the most important detail happened when IO Interactive retained the rights to the franchise that put them on the map in the first place and has allowed them to grow to the size that they are today, Hitman.

The journey for Hitman and IOI hasn’t been easy. Hitman 2016 underperformed in the eyes of Square and IOI struggled to capture attention with the release of Hitman 2, a few years later. This was likely due to the change from the episodic release schedule that was Hitman (2016). This confusion likely wasn’t helped out by the marketing from Warner Brothers as well as a incorrect release window in the middle of November 2018. Hitman 2 was released among massive releases including Red Dead Redemption 2, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Spider Man and Assassins Creed Odyssey just to name a few of the higher profile ones.

After a slight misstep with Hitman 2, IOI surprise revealed their collaboration with MGM in late 2020 to “develop and publish a brand new James Bond video game. Project 007 features a wholly original Bond story and will see players earn their 00 status in the very first James Bond origin. Project 007 will be powered by IO Interactive’s proprietary Glacier technology”

Speaking with the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, IOI CEO opened up a little more on Project 007 since its announcement in late 2020. We already knew that it was going to be an origin story and that the game was already in active development but some key details came out of the interview. “We have been allowed to make our own digital Bond, which will not lean on a Bond actor” In the press release announcing the project IOI informed us that the project would be wholly original and when combining that information with this interview he added that “you could easily imagine that a trilogy could come out of it”

The latest in a line of good news for the studio is that Hitman 3 has already recovered all of its development costs in just over a week. The even better news for IO Interactive is that they self published the title, whereas Hitman (2016) was published by Square Enix before that relationship fell apart and Hitman 2 was published by Warner Bros Interactive. Obviously, the massive benefit is that all of the profit of the game goes straight to the developer, which will help fund the studio, allowing them to expand, bring in top tier talent and keep doing what they love.

Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, IO CEO said “it has been a labour of love between our fans and everyone at the studio. As the developer and publisher, we are immensely proud that we can say Hitman 3 is already profitable. That puts us in a really good place and allows us to confidently move forward with our ambitious plans for future projects”

Based on the stability that the Bond contract along with the recent massive success and self publishing of Hitman 3, IOI CEO mentioned that today the company is 200 employees and that over the next few years they will be over 400 employees.

IOI is a long way from where it was in 2016 after Hitman (2016) didn’t sell to the level that Square Enix had projected and it seemed very unsure that Hitman would continue with IOI or at all. Four years later, and a belief in what they are doing, which has lead to the success of Hitman 3 and a new contract for Bond it seems that IOI is poised to tackle the future.