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IO Interactive has opened a new Swedish studio.
In a statement on the official website, the developer stated the new studio in Malmö – which is already fully operational – will "strengthen IO Interactive’s commitment to deliver exceptional content to the Hitman franchise, community and all our fans".
"We are super excited and proud to announce IOI Malmö," said Hakan Abrak, IO Interactive CEO via a blog post. "We will expand IOI to join a buzzling [sic] game developer community and bring our own unique IOI culture to this amazing town."
"Furthermore, this will expand our muscles for creating brand-new and exciting endeavours, new universes, new franchises. In other words, IOI Malmö and Copenhagen are one family. The IOI expansion in Malmö was a natural choice as there is a very strong existing video game industry. I believe it has all opportunities to become the epicentre of game development in Scandinavia."
A number of vacancies are now open on IOI’s careers pages, although some listings do not explicitly indicate the base location.
The Hitman franchise is now 18 years old but while IO Interactive’s games have retained an icy-calm demeanour, behind the scenes the series has seen some turmoil. Eidos published Agent 47’s early titles and liked him and the studio enough to buy them outright. Then Eidos itself was subsumed into Square Enix, which funded further surgical hits and even developed a couple of mobile titles around the IP. Square Enix looked to have garroted the series, pulling funding after the episodic Hitman reboot. But mercy was granted as a successful management buyout kept the IP with IO Interactive – and Warner Bros. was chosen to publish the latest title.
"Hitman is an iconic gaming franchise and we are fans of the extraordinary work done by IO Interactive over the years," Olivier Wolff, SVP of international games told MCV last November. "Here at Warner Bros, we aim to work with the best talent to create the most exciting games possible so working with IO Interactive seemed like a natural fit."
