Hitman developer IO Interactive has revealed that the once cash-strapped studio received “really, really attractive” acquisition offers following its split with publisher Square Enix. However, the management decided to take a risk and remain independent, which ended up paying off with the release of Hitman 3.
During an interview with IGN, CEO Hakan Abrak revealed that IO considered finding investors on multiple occasions, especially when it “literally had three months of cash flow before we had to close shop.” He added:
So, there were times where it was close, in some scenarios where we’d be like, we have to find an investor or we have to kind of go with this, but the vision we had, we had taken a risk with doing an MBO [management buyout]. The vision we had for Hitman 2016, we knew that we built a platform where it wasn’t just about the sales performance in the first three or six months, we knew we were in for a marathon.
So, the team and the management, we believed it would be impactful and we kept being a bit resilient. Some of the offers were really, really attractive, and it would have been easy in many ways, but I think at that point, we were like, we really need to leave this old IO to try to do this ourselves. And you know, not only did it work, it went above and beyond all our expectations. So, we lived another day, and another day, and another year, and then went from strength to strength today, which is absolutely amazing.
Hitman 3 recouped its development costs within a week.
