The Hitman creators have shared their plans for the near future. IO Interactive has opened a third studio to help support its current games and an unannounced new IP. The company also has ambitions to publish titles from third-party developers.
IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak opened up about it in a new interview with GamesIndustry.biz. The new “elite” studio in Barcelona will join the two other offices in Copenhagen and Malmö.
Together, they will be working on two games at once, Project 007 and an unannounced title based on a new IP. One part of the team will also continue to create content for the World of Assassination trilogy, although IO Interactive said that there will be no new Hitman games in the coming years, as Agent 47 “needs a break.”
“Without going into too much detail, we have a third universe that we’re working actively on, which is a bit different and absolutely a love child. It is something our core people, our veteran staff, have been dreaming about for some time,” Abrak said about the studio’s unannounced project.
IO Interactive has now over 200 employees, and the new office in Barcelona will contribute to the company’s further expansion. According to Abrak, they want to become the “most desirable game developer in Europe by 2024.”
The studio also plans to publish titles from other developers. However, Abrak thinks that IO Interactive, which is now independently developing and releasing its games, might still collaborate with some big publishers in the future.