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How has IO Interactive managed to stay afloat despite all its setbacks?

chaobreaker

chaobreaker

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,543
I have no beef with the developer and have enjoyed the few Hitman games I've played but I'm just at awe at how they been getting by for so long in an industry known for chewing up and spitting out companies if they're not constantly churning out megahits.

Take for example their newest Hitman trilogy. IO staggered out the content of the first game over a year and even then had to simplify the cutscenes and presentation of the second and third entries. They've been selling well but clearly not in the way any of their publishers expected.

Speaking of those publishers: Did everyone just forget how they went through 3 different publishers in the past decade before going independent?

Remember the Kane and Lynch games? That was going to be their 2nd tentpole series for them but both games ended up gigantically bombing.

Any of these factors could spell trouble for any AAA third party developer but IO has gotten by relatively unscathed. Heck, they managed to get the elusive 007 video game license all by themselves. What gives?
 
Nappuccino

Nappuccino

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
13,018
If I had to guess, smart budgeting within the studio itself.

Making cuts to the game's cost where needed (those cut scenes, for example) while still getting the game out to an audience who cares about said game.
 
UnluckyKate

UnluckyKate

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,548
IO is with Remedy and Insomniac is a dev team that I'm VERY glad survived the past generation and finally get some WELL deserved success
 
PucePikmin

PucePikmin

Member
Apr 26, 2018
3,758
I think they're just very efficient when it comes to spending -- they've said Hitman 3 is already profitable, despite the fact (based on the January NPD charts) it isn't a runaway great seller or anything. They know what their games do, and they stay strictly within those bounds in terms of vision/budget.
 
ciddative

ciddative

Member
Apr 5, 2018
4,631
I know the Hitman 2 cutscene style was altered, but didn't know it happened with 3 as well, the levels concepts seem more ambitious or at least unconvetional (haven't played 3 or watched any cutscenes)
 

Raigor

Member
May 14, 2020
15,146
PucePikmin said:
I think they're just very efficient when it comes to spending -- they've said Hitman 3 is already profitable, despite the fact (based on the January NPD charts) it isn't a runaway great seller or anything. They know what their games do, and they stay strictly within those bounds in terms of vision/budget.
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Hitman 3 had the biggest digital launch of the series.
NPD does not track digital sales for Hitman 3
 
dex3108

dex3108

Member
Oct 26, 2017
22,605
PucePikmin said:
I think they're just very efficient when it comes to spending -- they've said Hitman 3 is already profitable, despite the fact (based on the January NPD charts) it isn't a runaway great seller or anything. They know what their games do, and they stay strictly within those bounds in terms of vision/budget.
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You for got exclusivity money they got from PlayStation for VR mode and Epic for Epic Store.
 
Magog

Magog

Banned
Jan 9, 2021
561
I loved the Kane and Lynch games. The messy presentation, the insane protags. Not a fan of the hitman series but it has diehard fans and they are probably the ones keeping the studio going.
 
NewDust

NewDust

Visited by Knack
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,596
chaobreaker said:
Speaking of those publishers: Did everyone just forget how they went through 3 different publishers in the past decade before going independent?
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Three? Eidos=Square, and WB was more of a distribution partner than a full on publisher.

One thing I can't quite remember, wasn't Ubisoft tied to the Kane and Lynch franchise?
 
Astrogamer

Astrogamer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
925
I think you're think from the wrong angle. It would be trouble for AAA publisher. Assuming sound management, games on the level of even Hitman Absolution's success could keep a AAA developer afloat but, AAA publishers constantly need growth to appease their shareholders.
 
Musubi

Musubi

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
23,611
PucePikmin said:
I think they're just very efficient when it comes to spending -- they've said Hitman 3 is already profitable, despite the fact (based on the January NPD charts) it isn't a runaway great seller or anything. They know what their games do, and they stay strictly within those bounds in terms of vision/budget.
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Yup which is exactly why them and Square Enix were never going to mesh well.
 

Deleted member 46804

User requested account closure
Banned
Aug 17, 2018
4,129
ciddative said:
I know the Hitman 2 cutscene style was altered, but didn't know it happened with 3 as well, the levels concepts seem more ambitious or at least unconvetional (haven't played 3 or watched any cutscenes)
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The OP is wrong. They went back to using fully animated CG cutscenes for 3. chaobreaker you should edit your OP or clarify what you meant about H3.
 
ArkhamFantasy

ArkhamFantasy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,547
SE was the one that took the big financial hit of Hitman 1. They wrote off 43 million when they parted ways with them.
 
DOBERMAN INC

DOBERMAN INC

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,993
hanshen said:
Cutscenes in 3 are rendered in-engine and honestly look worse than the in-game graphics with really bare-bone animation. The CG cut scenes in 1 had way better production value.
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I might be wrong but I think the CG cutscenes from H1 were provided by SE since they were owned by them and when they went independent they couldn't fit something like outsourcing CG cutscenes into the budget. H3 was meeting in the middle, kind of anyway.
 

Deleted member 46804

User requested account closure
Banned
Aug 17, 2018
4,129
Zor said:
Aren't the cutscenes in 3 rendered in-engine, unlike the full CG in 1?
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No. They are pre-rendered and look comparable to H1.
hanshen said:
Cutscenes in 3 are rendered in-engine and honestly look worse than the in-game graphics with really bare-bone animation. The CG cut scenes in 1 had way better production value.
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They are not in engine. They are pre-rendered and look comparable to H1. The issue with the cutscenes is that they are low bit-rate which makes them an artifacted mess but that has to do with file size and not budget or level of effort.
 
EvilBoris

EvilBoris

Prophet of Truth - HDTVtest
Verified
Oct 29, 2017
16,684
Astrogamer said:
I think you're think from the wrong angle. It would be trouble for AAA publisher. Assuming sound management, games on the level of even Hitman Absolution's success could keep a AAA developer afloat but, AAA publishers constantly need growth to appease their shareholders.
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Hitman Absolution performed below expectation according to SE at the time
 
hanshen

hanshen

Member
Jun 24, 2018
3,860
Chicago, IL
DukeNukum said:
No. They are pre-rendered and look comparable to H1.

They are not in engine. They are pre-rendered and look comparable to H1. The issue with the cutscenes is that they are low bit-rate which makes them an artifacted mess but that has to do with file size and not budget or level of effort.
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I have to disagree. the cut scenes in 3 are pre-rendered, but with the game engine not a proper renderer.
The quality of hair, fabric and lighting is vastly inferior to the ones in 2016. Not that I really care to complain, but it's different.

2016:


Hitman 3:
 
DeadlyVenom

DeadlyVenom

Member
Apr 3, 2018
2,778
DukeNukum said:
No. They are pre-rendered and look comparable to H1.

They are not in engine. They are pre-rendered and look comparable to H1. The issue with the cutscenes is that they are low bit-rate which makes them an artifacted mess but that has to do with file size and not budget or level of effort.
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H3's are pre-rendered, sure. But in engine with game assets.

The actors actually did performance capture for the season 1 cutscenes, something they haven't done since.
 

Majora85

Member
Nov 21, 2017
1,105
DukeNukum said:
No. They are pre-rendered and look comparable to H1.

They are not in engine. They are pre-rendered and look comparable to H1. The issue with the cutscenes is that they are low bit-rate which makes them an artifacted mess but that has to do with file size and not budget or level of effort.
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They do not look comparable to 1's at all. The cutscenes in 1 clearly had a far higher budget. Look at that glossy montage of 47's past kills or the final cutscene in Hitman 1 where Diana is confronted on a train, the subtlety in the facial expressions is on another level. Leaps and bounds ahead of any cutscenes in 3 where the characters often look like expressionless mannequins.
 
LiquidSolid

LiquidSolid

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,731
The key was that they spent a lot of time figuring out the direction they were going to take Hitman while they were owned by Square Enix and, since going independent, have been able to iterate on that concept and engine to get Hitman 2 and 3 out in much shorter time frames. I doubt they would've survived if they'd had to fund Hitman 2016 themselves.

Not to mention getting a favourable deal with Square Enix to license the Hitman IP, to the point where a lot of people actually think Square Enix gave/sold the IP to them.
 
Adrifi

Adrifi

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Jan 5, 2019
3,466
the Spanish Basque Country
I think that the current search for content by different platform holders has benefited studios that don't usually do too well commercially; Remedy and IO Interactive, for example.

New potential revenue streams for independent studios:

- Epic Games exclusivity deals
- Game Pass deals
- PS Now deals
- Games With Gold
- PS Plus games
- Timed exclusivity deals
- Marketing deals
- Deals to have exclusive content or modes on a certain platform
- Deals to have your game on Stadia
- Deals to have your games on Luna
- Tech-related marketing deals (like with Nvidia or AMD)

IO Interactive has simply taken advantage of this. Hitman 3, for example, has:

1 - A marketing deal with Sony
2 - A deal with Sony to have VR compatibility only on PSVR
3 - A deal with Epic Games to be EGS exclusive

And after the game sells all the units IO Interactive thinks it has to sell, they will get even more money by putting it on Game Pass, Stadia or other services.
 
Mg.

Mg.

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,978
DukeNukum said:
No. They are pre-rendered and look comparable to H1.

They are not in engine. They are pre-rendered and look comparable to H1. The issue with the cutscenes is that they are low bit-rate which makes them an artifacted mess but that has to do with file size and not budget or level of effort.
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Nah. Hitman 3's cutscenes are rendered offline using their engine, with game assets. There's a stark difference in quality that isn't just tied to a "lower bitrate".
6S2hFqU.jpg

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The only exception are the motion graphic-esque briefing videos. But the character cutscenes are all done using their engine.
 
Musubi

Musubi

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
23,611
Yossarian said:
I think it still sold a fair whack relative to prior games in the series, it's just SE's expectations were quite high. Could be wrong.
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SE's expectations are always way to high. 2013 Tomb Raider sold like 6M copies and they thought that was a failure and there were resignations in the company as a result afterwards.
 
Doctor_Thomas

Doctor_Thomas

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,652
I had no intention of buying Hitman III.

I only had limited exposure to the first in the trilogy.

Then I realised I could import the content from 1 into 2 and 2 into 3, and was reading impressions and then realised that it's the sort of third person puzzle action game that I'd enjoy.

So I took a punt on it, I paid for a month of PS Now to get Hitman 2 and transferred all the content.

And, oh boy, what an experience. I'm in the Hitman III campaign now and loving it and wish I'd been there from the start.

It's obvious they have budget constraints, but they focused on the right things.
 
Axe

Axe

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,757
United Kingdom
IO was very lucky to have been able to develop their engine with all that Square Enix money and get to keep it afterwards too. Without that I think they would have really struggled to go it alone.

It's a shame what happened with the cutscenes in 2 and 3, though it was largely out of their control. Putting focus on gameplay was absolutely the correct decision. No one buys Hitman games for the story, as entertaining as it can be.
 
Samiya

Samiya

Alt Account
Banned
Nov 30, 2019
4,811
There are some *very* talented people working there at IO Interactive.

It has also helped that the studio has benefited from outsourcing some of the costly assets to cheap, affordable labor in the Global South
 
s y

s y

Member
Nov 8, 2017
10,432
Magog said:
Yeah they have absurd sales goals.
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It makes sense once you look at the budgets. Shadow of the tomb raider had a 130m budget. Considering platform/retail cuts, discounted sales....5 million is like the baseline a AAA title needs to sell these days.

sales goals are probably even higher when the main dev iis based in the bay area like Crystal Dynaics/tomb raider 2013.
 
Zor

Zor

Member
Oct 30, 2017
11,353
Mg. said:
Nah. Hitman 3's cutscenes are rendered offline using their engine, with game assets. There's a stark difference in quality that isn't just tied to a "lower bitrate".
6S2hFqU.jpg

ZrkxZ8V.jpg


The only exception are the motion graphic-esque briefing videos. But the character cutscenes are all done using their engine.
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Ah, thought so!
 
Bede-x

Bede-x

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,423
chaobreaker said:
Any of these factors could spell trouble for any AAA third party developer but IO has gotten by relatively unscathed.
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They didn't go through unscathed. They had to fire almost half the company and were close to bankruptcy after the split from Square Enix, before rebuilding to where they are now.
 
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