14 DAY TRIAL // IO Interactive, the developer of the Hitman series and the studio behind the recent Hitman: Absolution, believes that the new game in the franchise currently in development at Square Enix Montreal will deliver a fresh perspective on the whole series and on its protagonist, Agent 47.
Hitman games have delivered some great experiences over the years and, as you could tell from our recent review for Hitman: Absolution, the new game brings the series back into the spotlight.
After the just released Absolution from IO Interactive, publisher Square Enix is now focusing on the new Hitman game currently in development at its new Montreal studio.
According to IO’s Tore Blystad, who directed Absolution, the Montreal team will deliver a fresh perspective on the Hitman series, just like Treyarch did with Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty franchise.
“It's like with Treyarch and Infinity Ward,” he told OPM. “You have an IP that has been developed. They will feed off each other, as well as [have] some things that stand out. I think with these big franchises it takes a long time to develop just one game. If you can, work a little bit in parallel at least and help each other out.”
“We've been talking about these similarities to some of the big movie franchises like Aliens, where everyone's doing it their own way," he added. “Every time someone gets their hands on a franchise they do something different. So rather than doing the same thing again you get another take on the character from a fresh perspective.”
IO is still quite protective with its franchise, however, as the studio constantly communicates with the Montreal team to make sure it won’t change too many things about the series.
“There’s a lot of these problems you encounter with these sort of productions, some of them are really fundamental problems, or they have a big effect on the game – like how you do a mechanic for instance. If you change a mechanic too much then the whole gameplay will be modified.”
Blystad also soothes the worries of IO fans by confirming that quite a few key developers have been transferred from the studio to the new team in Montreal in order to make sure that it's still a faithful Hitman game.
“Well there are talks between us and of course it has to be somewhat in sync but it’s the first time you could say Hitman has gone out of the house. Luckily it’s with someone we know. Some of the key developers came from IO and have been working on previous games so it’s not like it’s in completely new hands.”
As of yet, however, Square Enix Montreal’s Hitman game hasn’t received any details, let alone a possible release date.