Square Enix is Looking to Sell Off Hitman Developer IO Interactive

[Xorph]

Anyone got Bethesda's number?

WhyintheworldwouldyouwantBethesdatomakeaHitmangamethough

I dont. I want Bethesda to buy IO and let IO make Hitman. Bethesda as a publisher seems to be pretty hands off with their developers.

Actually, the best publisher by far for that right now would be Devolver Digital.

I hope Bethesda buys them too...and rescues Duke Nukem from Gearbox...and makes (well, lets Flying Wild Hog) a game where Lo Wang and Duke team up against something.

Why would you want Bethesda to buy out Devolver Digital? What possible benefit could that give?

Well, they already got id, and Shadow Warrior (and Duke Nukem) are "relatives" of DOOM. I just want to bring the family back together.

Though I will be fine if Devolver or Wild Flying Hog could acquire Duke from Gearbox.

A publisher acquiring an indie publisher that doesn't actually own any of the IPs/Developers it publishes would be completely pointless.
Aside from that, spending whatever multi-million sum Gearbox would want for Duke would also be a pretty silly move, considering they could just negotiate for a license of the IP for a game or two and have just as much creative freedom at far less of a cost.

 

[The Real Sandman]

#FreeTHIEF

Come on Squenix, just do it

 

[Hawki]

#FreeTHIEF

Come on Squenix, just do it

http://au.ign.com/articles/2017/05/11/fifth-thief-game-reportedly-in-the-works-to-coincide-with-film-adaptation

Ain't happening.

Also, curious, does IO get to keep the IP, or does Square?

 

[Xorph]

#FreeTHIEF

Come on Squenix, just do it

http://au.ign.com/articles/2017/05/11/fifth-thief-game-reportedly-in-the-works-to-coincide-with-film-adaptation

Ain't happening.

Also, curious, does IO get to keep the IP, or does Square?

It's very likely that Squeenix owns it, devs working on AAA games under AAA publishers -rarely- own the IPs they're working on.

 

[The Real Sandman]

#FreeTHIEF

Come on Squenix, just do it

http://au.ign.com/articles/2017/05/11/fifth-thief-game-reportedly-in-the-works-to-coincide-with-film-adaptation

Ain't happening.

Unless if Sqeenix can pull a billion dollar rabbit out of its ass with those ventures, I doubt they'll want to keep the IP for long. The only reason for Sqeenix to keep the Thief license is as a placeholder for other more bankable IPs.

Given the publisher's current track record of overblown budgets and internal conflicts up the wazoo, it is only inevitable that at some point Sqeenix will have to remove some dead weight. I'd love to be proven wrong, but as it stands Thief has no future with them.

 

[darkrage6]

Shit happens.

The Episodic Hitman game was a weird choice. The game design benefited from it, but the sales clearly took a hit. Tbh, if IO had more than one franchise worth talking about, they likely wouldn't be in this position. But Kane and Lynch was ass 2 times in a row.

I don't think the game design really benefited from it, to me it was painfully obvious that I/O did not originally plan for it to be episodic.

 

[darkrage6]

Well one problem with episodic games the creator could always pull the plug early and Square-Enix is not a company that I would trust finishing it. So I never bought the game, although I am a huge fan of the Hitman games I was weary they would just give up halfway throught it. Glad, they finished it, but I would never by episodic games unless that company had at least proven they would get the game done. Square-Enix was not in the best position that extruded confidence from me and I guess other fans.

Now watch EA gets summoned,decides to buy it only to make it a MMO and with a paywall and micro-transactions.

I waited until the physical release this year before buying it, as I see no point in paying for an unfinished product.

 

[darkrage6]

Anyone got Bethesda's number?

WhyintheworldwouldyouwantBethesdatomakeaHitmangamethough

Shit happens.

The Episodic Hitman game was a weird choice. The game design benefited from it, but the sales clearly took a hit. Tbh, if IO had more than one franchise worth talking about, they likely wouldn't be in this position. But Kane and Lynch was ass 2 times in a row.

The first K&L was actually pretty good if you played it co-op, there's a lot of moments where Players 1/2 get to experience different stuff happening, and some clever stuff with Lynch's hallucinations you'd otherwise miss out on playing it solo.

Shame the sequel was such a pile of garboni .-.

I thought the K&L sequel was OK, the problem was Square Enix put far too much focus on a multiplayer mode which frankly nobody was really asking for, and as such the campaign wasn't nearly as good as it could've been thanks to all the resources wasted on a multiplayer mode that practically nobody played.

 

[darkrage6]

#FreeTHIEF

Come on Squenix, just do it

http://au.ign.com/articles/2017/05/11/fifth-thief-game-reportedly-in-the-works-to-coincide-with-film-adaptation

Ain't happening.

Unless if Sqeenix can pull a billion dollar rabbit out of its ass with those ventures, I doubt they'll want to keep the IP for long. The only reason for Sqeenix to keep the Thief license is as a placeholder for other more bankable IPs.

Given the publisher's current track record of overblown budgets and internal conflicts up the wazoo, it is only inevitable that at some point Sqeenix will have to remove some dead weight. I'd love to be proven wrong, but as it stands Thief has no future with them.

Sounds similar to what happened with Prince of Persia, after the failure of the 2008 reboot, Ubisoft trotted the IP out one last time for a tie-in game to the 2011 film adaption and we have not a heard thing from the franchise since.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Shit happens.

The Episodic Hitman game was a weird choice. The game design benefited from it, but the sales clearly took a hit. Tbh, if IO had more than one franchise worth talking about, they likely wouldn't be in this position. But Kane and Lynch was ass 2 times in a row.

I don't think the game design really benefited from it, to me it was painfully obvious that I/O did not originally plan for it to be episodic.

I think that the episodic design did force IO to improve on the level design. Especially when it follows Absolution. Absolution is like the FF13 of the Hitman franchise. Linear as hell. And with a good chunk of the targets getting killed in cutscenes it removed a large chunk of player agency. Disguises were nearly useless when seen by people in the same uniform. You couldn't even close doors.

The levels are bigger and designed with more care, like the first 3 Hitman games. Blood Money gave you more ways to kill your target, but the level design wasn't as well thought out. They were more open levels, but not better designed levels. I think Hitman 2016's levels are done well because they had to make sure you could play the same level a bunch of times.

 

[darkrage6]

Shit happens.

The Episodic Hitman game was a weird choice. The game design benefited from it, but the sales clearly took a hit. Tbh, if IO had more than one franchise worth talking about, they likely wouldn't be in this position. But Kane and Lynch was ass 2 times in a row.

I don't think the game design really benefited from it, to me it was painfully obvious that I/O did not originally plan for it to be episodic.

I think that the episodic design did force IO to improve on the level design. Especially when it follows Absolution. Absolution is like the FF13 of the Hitman franchise. Linear as hell. And with a good chunk of the targets getting killed in cutscenes it removed a large chunk of player agency. Disguises were nearly useless when seen by people in the same uniform. You couldn't even close doors.

The levels are bigger and designed with more care, like the first 3 Hitman games. Blood Money gave you more ways to kill your target, but the level design wasn't as well thought out. They were more open levels, but not better designed levels. I think Hitman 2016's levels are done well because they had to make sure you could play the same level a bunch of times.

Some of the level designs were good, others were pretty meh, I don't think being episodic "forced" them to get better, I think if I/O were given more freedom the levels would've been even better.