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Square Enix sells off IO-Interactive - now an independent studio

Infinitron

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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...find-a-buyer-for-io-future-of-hitman-in-doubt

Square Enix trying to find a buyer for IO, future of Hitman in doubt
"The Company has regrettably decided to withdraw from the business."

Square Enix has announced the shock decision to sell Hitman developer IO Interactive, putting the future of the much-loved stealth series in doubt.

In a note to investors, the Japanese corporation warned of a £33m extraordinary loss in its financial results for the year ending 31st March 2017. The cause of this loss is the planned sale of the Danish studio.

Here's Square Enix's statement:

"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."

Square Enix said it has started discussions with potential new investors and is currently in negotiations to secure this investment, but there can be no guarantees that the negotiations will conclude successfully. Based on the wording of Square Enix's note, it seems if a buyer can not be secured, IO will be shut down.



Square Enix has yet to say what exactly this means for the future of Hitman (we've asked for comment), but it doesn't look good. The £33m writedown may be the result of canning development on a second season for the game.

IO's troubles will come as a shock to many, given last year's Hitman turned out to be one of the best Hitman games ever and certainly one of Square Enix's best games in recent memory. But did it sell well enough for the suits at Square Enix? The new Hitman was sold as an episodic title before being bundled together on disc. IO has also continued to support Hitman with a raft of updates and in-game events (May marks the 14th consecutive month of new content releases into the game), and players had expected season two to kick off sooner rather than later.

Square Enix picked up IO after it bought Eidos back in 2009. The current incarnation of Eidos operates as the western wing of Square Enix, managing the likes of Tomb Raider, Hitman, Deus Ex and Thief.

In November 2016, IO moved into swanky new offices in Copenhagen and re-branded its logo, and in March 2017 celebrated one year of the new Hitman.

Square Enix recently canned the Deus Ex series after disappointing sales of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. It appears Square Enix is shifting focus to its recently-announced multi-game Marvel project and a new Tomb Raider game.


And yet: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...are-enix-just-reported-huge-sales-and-profits

Meanwhile, Square Enix just reported huge sales and profits
FF15 and Rise of the Tomb Raider PS4 do well.

Square Enix is binning off Hitman developer IO Interactive, but it's just announced record revenue and profits for the company as a whole.

For the financial year ending 31st March 2017, Square Enix saw net sales of £1.7bn - an increase 20 per cent versus the previous year, with operating income up 20.3 per cent and ordinary income up 22.9 per cent.

Square Enix said the launch of Final Fantasy 15 and the PlayStation 4 version of Rise of the Tomb Raider as well as strong download sales of catalogue titles had sparked the increase in net sales and operating income in the area of console games.

When it comes to massively multiplayer online role-playing games (Square Enix runs MMO Final Fantasy 14), revenue has shown "steady performance" but net sales and operating income declined significantly compared to the previous year because of a lack of an expansion disc release.

Smartphone games saw strong performance. These include Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and Kingdom Hearts Union χ.

In Square Enix's financial note, the company described the console market in North America and Europe as "increasingly getting competitive and oligopolistic". Basically, it's saying the console market is tougher than ever and it's dominated by a few heavy hitters.

PowerTorment wtf??
 
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Alienman

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Did a post get removed about Square dropping Hitman franchise?

Anyway. That is some big news. What will IO do now?

Edit:

Ah the good old move to a new fucking thread...
 

Mynon

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Fucking hell, news like that make you hate this industry. Latest Hitman was glorious, episodic structure and technical hiccups aside.

At least they could sell their IPs too, if they only plan to sit on them. Hitman deserves to go on, and I would sure like to see another company's take on Thief (since Square obviously ignores its existence after the failure of Eidos Montreal's attemted reboot).
 
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What IP is SE actually focusing on at the moment?
Its not Deus Ex, its no longer Hitman, definitely not Thief, is it Tomb Raider?
 

Icymad

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Fucking hell, news like that make you hate this industry. Latest Hitman was glorious, episodic structure and technical hiccups aside.
So what, where's the money to back it up?

Whose idea was to put Denuvo, episodic content and always online? Square or IO interactive?
 
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What IP is SE actually focusing on at the moment?
Its not Deus Ex, its no longer Hitman, definitely not Thief, is it Tomb Raider?

Their biggest active franchises are Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Tomb Raider, and Kingdom Hearts, and they made the Marvel deal with Eidos Montreal.

So all the mainstream JRPGs, Tomb Raider, and possibly Marvel games.
 

vortex

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Last edited:
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Their biggest active franchises are Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Tomb Raider, and Kingdom Hearts, and they made the Marvel deal with Eidos Montreal.

So all the mainstream JRPGs, Tomb Raider, and possibly Marvel games.

So a big chunk of the Western IPs aren't performing well.
 

willdunz

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LMAO I like to see how are they going to handle always online now the server is shutting down.

Also I feel like SE is becoming the new EA.
 

Zep Zepo

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Well, when you count on suckers buying *6 DLC at $20 + the base game with a 'tutorial level' for $20...that's $140.

Most Gaymers are not THAT stupid.

The whole idea was fail from the beginning.

Whales could not keep this catastrophe afloat.

Zep--
*my numbers may be wrong, but close.
 

Sentinel

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>Treat your paying customers like criminals by slapping Denuvo on top of always-online DRM, and punish them by having them miss previous content if they didn't buy the game as early as possible.

Who knew this was gonna end badly?
 

ghostdog

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They fucked up Hitman with episodic and online-shit and they fucked up DeusEx with almost the same crap (half the game released, microtransactions).

And somehow all this episodic, online and denuvo intrusive crap didn't help their sales by *stopping piracy*, why? Because all this stuff fucks the real customers and customers gave them the finger.



Episodic gaming is the future

 

Infinitron

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Last I heard, the new Hitman sold well and PowerTorment seemed very pleased with it.

This is more complex than one game not doing well.
 

PlanHex

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the Japanese corporation warned of a £33m extraordinary loss in its financial results for the year ending 31st March 2017. The cause of this loss is the planned sale of the Danish studio.
For the financial year ending 31st March 2017, Square Enix saw net sales of £1.7bn - an increase 20 per cent versus the previous year, with operating income up 20.3 per cent and ordinary income up 22.9 per cent.
Sooooo... Some kind of tax evasion scheme?
 

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