Hitman developer IO Interactive has reported its strongest financial year to date. According to the studio, this success is driven by strong sales of Hitman 3, as well as many players returning to the first and second games in the rebooted stealth trilogy.
Why has IO Interactive had such a good year?
According to an IO Interactive business review document, the studio's profit for the 2020/21 financial year was around 270 million Danish kroner, which works out at around $42 million. This is a pretty seismic leap from last year's 11 million kroner (roughly $1.3 million) figure. IO attributes this exponential increase in large part to the success of Hitman 3, which "earned 300% of the initial sales budget" allocated to it. Considering IO developed and published Hitman 3 itself, this is no mean feat.
As well as Hitman 3's runaway success, IO Interactive also says more players have been discovering 47's case history. According to IO, the Hitman back catalog has "overperformed compared to sales budgets". The studio puts this down to making Hitman available on more platforms, plus "synergies" between the three games in the rebooted World of Assassination trilogy, as well as the "positive effect on sales" from increased gaming activity due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The review document describes management's opinion of these figures as "highly satisfactory", which I imagine being something of an understatement.
What's next for IO Interactive?
According to IO's financial report, the studio has three major projects in the works right now. The first consists of ongoing support for Hitman 3 in the form of new "premium extensions" and live content. Secondly, there's Project 007, the James Bond game IO revealed last year. Sadly, there's no new information on that front, but it seems like development is ongoing, which is reassuring. Finally, there's a third, as-yet-unannounced project that IO is working on. Although the studio doesn't hint at when we might expect more info about that project, the very fact it exists is pretty tantalizing. Hopefully, IO will reveal this nameless game soon.
Of course, IO Interactive isn't quite done with Hitman yet, either. The studio recently released the first game in the World of Assassination trilogy on the DRM-free platform GOG.com. Hitman: Game of the Year Edition was promptly review bombed by GOG users, with many dissatisfied with the game's features. The game was subsequently removed from GOG, with GOG staffers saying they are "in dialogue" with IO Interactive about how to move forward with the game's release. At the time of writing, all three Hitman games are not available on a single storefront on PC; Hitman and Hitman 2 are available on Steam, but Hitman 3 is an Epic Games Store exclusive. Hopefully, IO Interactive and GOG can work something out between them, not just for Hitman but for all three World of Assassination games.
Disclosure: TechRaptor works with GOG.com for affiliate partnership.
Have you played Hitman 3? What would you like to be IO Interactive's as-yet unannounced project? Let us know in the comments below!
