A render of IO Interactive's flagship character Agent 47 from the Hitman series

Square Enix Withdraws from Hitman Developer IO Interactive

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Published: May 11, 2017 11:30 AM

Square Enix has announced that it is officially withdrawing from IO Interactive, the Denmark-based studio working on Hitman.

The Japanese game developer and publisher announced this in a notice on its website.

SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO., LTD. (the “Company”) announces today that it has booked the following extraordinary loss in the financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017.

The notice is for an extraordinary loss, which means that the company has taken a hard financial hit as a result of an unusual event or transaction (more info here).

Agent 47 walking towards the Dartmoor manor in the Hitman trilogy by IO Interactive

Here's what Square Enix says caused this loss and its subsequent withdrawal from IO Interactive:

To maximize player satisfaction as well as market potential going forward, we are focusing our resources and energies on key franchises and studios. As a result, the Company has regrettably decided to withdraw from the business of IO INTERACTIVE A/S, a wholly‐owned subsidiary and a Danish corporation, as of March 31, 2017. This decision has resulted in booking of the extraordinary loss amounting to 4,898 million yen, including disposition of the content production account related to the business and impairment loss of intangible assets, in the financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017.
As a result of this the Company started discussions with potential new investors and is currently in negotiations to secure this investment. Whilst there can be no guarantees that the negotiations will be concluded successfully, they are being explored since this is in the best interests of our shareholders, the studio and the industry as a whole.

What this will mean for the second season of Hitman is anyone's guess at this point, although Square Enix still holds the rights to the intellectual property. This, however, may change in the future.

Agent 47 dressed in a white outfit and tailing a target in the Hitman trilogy by IO Interactive

Io Interactive has taken to Twitter to respond to users wanting to know more about what this means for Hitman. While the studio has nothing concrete to share at the moment, it reassures players that more will be revealed after the dust settles.

This announcement comes as a bit of a surprise to most of us, especially because last year's Hitman reboot met with a strong reception from both players and the gaming press, with a common refrain suggesting that the game's seemingly random switch to an episodic format worked out better than expected.

What do you think of Square Enix withdrawing from IO Interactive? Let us know in the comment section down below!

Chris Anderson
| Staff Writer

I've been playing games since I was just barely able to walk so I might as well write about them.