IO Interactive is currently working on Hitman: Absolution, the latest in its long-running Hitman franchise. When the game ships in 2012, IO Interactive will be splitting the next Hitman game with Square Enix’s new Montreal studio. According to studio head Neil Jorgensen that gives IO a chance to work on a brand-new IP.
"We have very ambitious plans for Hitman," Jorgensen told Gamasutra. "We really look forward to having a close partnership with the Montreal studio. We're really thankful that our guys are going over there to help start the studio, and to ensure that the game they make is faithful to the Hitman experience."
Having a number of studios work on a single title is becoming the norm at larger studios, with games like Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed splitting duties between teams to hit annual deadlines.
"It's a natural step for any ambitious IP. I think it shows the ambition level, but the way I look at it is a very natural evolution,” added Jorgensen. "I think the amount of manpower you need to provide to a game in order to achieve AAA quality is definitely growing.”
Jorgensen did not go into what the new IP will be, but he promises that it’ll stay true to IO’s past.
"The dark humor and the antihero have always been a big part of the IO DNA, and I would love... to do that going forward," he explains.
"The consumer audience is growing, and people want different experiences. So even though they want to stay within the same IP, they want different experiences on different media. It could be mobile phones, PCs, browsers, whatever -- and I think that just shows the entertainment industry is growing."
“As developers we really need to move forward and be in those media as well... We are definitely monitoring that market very closely, although I can't comment on what we might be doing in that area,” he said.
