New Hitman Game in the Works as Square Enix Expands its Studios

30
Richard Walker

Hitman games are like buses, it seems. You wait ages for one to come along, and then two show up at once. With Hitman: Absolution currently in the pipeline at IO Interactive, publisher Square Enix has today announced plans to expand Deus Ex: Human Revolution developer Eidos Montreal - where Thief 4 is currently in development - as well as opening a second Montreal studio headed up by 20-year industry veteran Lee Singleton, who is presently the General Manager of Square Enix London.

It's at this new Montreal studio that another Hitman title will be in the offing, with the studio set to create 150 new jobs when it opens next year. Meanwhile, the expansion of Eidos Montreal will see a further 100 jobs being generated, as the team continues work on Thief 4 and looks towards developing the next Deus Ex game too. Eidos Montreal is also working on an unnanounced third game to boot. Busy, busy!

"Montreal is a vibrant centre of game creators with industry-leading talent, and one of the most important bases of our global network of game development within the Square Enix Group," said Square Enix President and CEO, Yoichi Wada.

"We believe in creating studios where passion for our games and gaming runs throughout and Eidos Montreal is testament to this vision," added Phil Rogers, President and CEO of Square Enix Europe. "The start up of a second studio brings a huge advantage to our business; we will nurture two separate studios with their own strengths, culture and appeal."

Looks like Square Enix has a lot of irons in the fire then, what with Final Fantasy XIII-2 coming in early 2012 and two Hitman games, Thief 4, a new Deus Ex and another unannounced project on the cards. Phew...

[Via Gamasutra]

Comments
30
  • Gonna kill the series just you wait
  • LOL Like buses wait for ever for 1 to turn up then 2 are coming.
  • huge risk, since thewy have no idea what people will like/hate about absolution and what people want changing for the second, silly people
  • They need to calm down. Hitman: Absolution hasn't hit shevles and not even a release date yet they're making another one. Don't get me wrong, Hitman games are beast but at least wait until the latest one has done good in sales.
  • Looking forward to leaving semi naked guards asleep in the rain.
  • It'll be some crummy little arcade game ala Burnout Crash
  • Square Enix haven't learnt any lessons from the Guitar Hero franchise I see.
  • @3, 4 the game isn't in development yet, if you read the article you'll see that the new studio will open next year. so hopefully absolution will be out by then
  • looking at the time it took to get HM: Absolution to stores it will be a while before the "New" title even see's the light of day.....maybe at the end of 2012 so I'm not worried...will be the same amount of time as COD games and they are by two different companies etc etc
  • @ #3 - With the way visitors to this site think, if anything from Absolution makes it into the new game, people will ignorantly bash Square Enix for milking the series or ripping people off by releasing a similar game. OT: "Hitman games are like buses, it seems. You wait ages for one to come along, and then two show up at once." - Good line, but nothing in this article says both Hitman games will even be released in the same year. Yeah, Absolution will probably come out in 2012, but who knows when the second will be released? The article vaguely says that the unnamed studio will be founded sometime in 2012. Cool news overall, but there really isn't anything of substance here to draw any reasonable conclusions from. That won't stop people from making knee-jerk judgments, but I'll wait until something concrete appears in 2012.
  • @ #7 - Thanks for proving my point.
  • I dont get alot about you internet people.The new studio thats making the new hitman game opens up next year and hitman Absolution comes out next year.So wouldnt that mean by the time they get around starting the new hitman game hitman Absolution will be realeased and giving developers are taking a year or 2 to produce big named games would give the new hitman game plenty of time to tweak their game.You all Fail for thinking a game will fail before its even started
  • Screw Hitman! Give me Just Cause 3!
  • Another Hitman game in the works? I ain't complaining
  • I think everybody is missing the obvious strategy here. They're trying to combine the way Call of Duty and Assassin Creed games are released. They have two studios that are or will be working on seperate games that will probably start releasing every other year, assuming that they are successful. That's the Call of Duty parallel. But the games will most likely have more carry over between them as far as settings and characters like Assassins Creed does. I got a used copy of one of the Hitman games for PS2 a long time ago and never ended up messing with it much. I always meant to go back and finish it but it never happened. So I'm not tied to the franchise by any means but I'm all for a new game to look forward to every year if it does live up to expectations. Maybe they'll even redo the older games in HD if the demand calls for it. Even so, I'm with #13. I would gladly trade a new Hitman game for Just Cause 3.
  • Hitman was one of those games on xbox where I was compelled to get the highest rating possible and have fun with it at the same time. these games have some serious potential.Hopefully they don't screw it up,I won't buy it on launch,I will wait for the reviews.
  • @15 and thats why i said they will ruin the series. We dont need games released every year. We need devs to actually put some effort into them.
  • One Hitman game in the works is enough right now. What we really need is a Legacy of Kain game in development. It has been way too long since Defiance.
  • Wait its a next gen game according to this.... http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-21-another-hitman-game-announced
  • @18 Agree! Bring back Kain and Raziel!! :D
  • Studio opens next year people calm down, its possible that game isn't released until 2013 or 14. Nothing wrong with them expanding their studio. I can't believe how many of you are complaining.
  • @ #15 - Your post implies that the studios will alternate on Hitman games. I highly doubt that's the case, especially since the article states that the existing studio is working on Thief 4 and will be working on the next Deus Ex. Square Enix acquired a number of franchises when they bought Eidos, and they have several of their own as well. Which the possible exception of Crystal Dynamics, I doubt any of SE's subsidiaries will be devoted to working on one franchise. @ #18 - I wouldn't mind seeing a reboot of the LoK series.
  • Rather than make another Hitman game get working on KH3 >.>
  • im sorry, but Eidos Montreal are a bunch of shit developers!!! the support they gave Deus Ex HR for PC and console, with all its bugs and glitches, while they just sat around doing nothing and not patching. thier support sucks and i will never buy another game made by Eidos Montreal. sry for rant but that was my experience.
  • @23 KH3? Wha? I love hitman, so hearing that 2 are coming makes it an early christmas for me
  • @23 Yeah, Kingdom Hearts 3! but first the 3ds one.
  • I've really enjoyed Deus EX ,so I hope Hitman will be another awsome game from Square Enix.
  • another hitman game. sweet.
  • Freedom Fighters 2 please.
  • The newly announced Hitman game will almost certainly be for the next gen systems. Calm down people. The Hitman franchise is not going CoD on us. They're just planning ahead. Off-topic: Thief 4? Am I the only one that this was news to? That's awesome! I loved the Thief games. I had no idea there was a new one in the works. That's great news.
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