Split with IO Interactive Comes After Square Enix Posted Record Profits Across the Board
Square Enix announced their split with IO Interactive today, officially dissolving a studio relationship that began back in 2009. The Danish studio’s work with Square Enix included Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days and the most recent Hitman games.
The move comes on the heels of Square Enix posting record levels of profits and sales for their company in their most recent financial report. In a memo detailing the aforementioned split, the Japanese gaming giant referred to an “extraordinary loss” resulting from this decision. The disclosed amount lost was approximately 4898 million yen, or 4.2 million USD. The company is in the process of finding a new owner for the Danish studio, although there’s no word yet on who that might be.
After carefully reading over the memo in question, some questions remain unanswered. Specifically, how much was Square Enix projected to lose if they didn’t sell off IO Interactive? The mystery amount had to be a substantial one if 4.2 million USD was considered an acceptable amount of collateral damage. Either way, this puts the future of the Hitman series in flux. It’s unclear whether we’re ever going to see another season of releases for Agent 47, especially now that the studio is changing hands. We’ll keep you up to date on the eventual fate of Hitman and IO, here at COGconnected.