Square Enix is selling Io-Interactive, developer of HITMAN

In a move that might prove frustrating for fans of HITMAN, Square Enix are selling the developer Io-Interactive.

I actually love the new HITMAN game, it ticks a lot of boxes for me. It looks good, has plenty of content and the elusive targets are also fun to do.

You can see this document that was released, which confirms this. Here's a cut of the file if you can't access it:

QuoteTo 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. This decision has resulted in booking of the extraordinary loss amounting to 4,898 million yen, including disposition of the content production account related to the business and impairment loss of intangible assets, in the financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017.

As a result of this the Company started discussions with potential new investors and is currently in negotiations to secure this investment. Whilst there can be no guarantees that the negotiations will be concluded successfully, they are being explored since this is in the best interests of our shareholders, the studio and the industry as a whole.

The problem is that Feral Interactive ported HITMAN to Linux, as Square Enix seem willing to team up and allow Feral Interactive through some deal to port and publish certain games to Linux. The issue here is that if Io-Interactive are picked up by another publisher, they may not be so willing to allow Feral to port future titles to Linux.

Hopefully any new deal worked out will keep Io-Interactive going and allow Feral to continue porting their titles. Io-Interactive have yet to release any statement on it, likely as Square Enix have told them not to for now. Worrying for fans of the franchise. Hopefully it will all work out and hopefully Season 2 will still come. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.