The first real AAA title of 2021, Hitman III, has finally launched, and so far it’s been generally well-received. Capping off the trilogy that started in 2016, IO Interactive’s stealth-based assassin game has delivered on everything and then some, despite some issues with the launch-day carryover site. The company also took calculated risk this time, deciding to both develop and publish the IP themselves, as opposed to working with Warner Bros. Interactive as they did with the previous two entries. That gamble seems to have paid off, as both the company and Gamesindustry.biz revealed that IO Interactive was able to recoup all of the development costs of Hitman III in less than a week since it launched.
According to the post, Hitman III skyrocketed to the top of the UK charts right off the bat, and from there it just continued to gain serious momentum around the world. No specific numbers or statistics were shared in this post, but IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak did state to Gamesindustrybiz that the game was already profitable in the short time span. “It has been a labor of love between our fans and everyone at the studio. As the developer and publisher, we are immensely proud that we can say Hitman 3 is already profitable. We have recouped the total project costs in less than a week. That puts us in a really good place and allows us to confidently move forward with our ambitious plans for future projects.”
Abrak goes onto say that being both the developer and the publisher actually ended up being much more beneficial than a hindrance. He mentions that doing both aspects of the business in-house enabled both the developer and the publisher side to work hand in hand, as opposed to the standard in the industry where the studio is usually giving updates to their respective publisher through calls, emails, etc. Apparently, due to these unique circumstances, Hitman III ended up being that much better of a game, and it truly shows in how the video game community has responded to it.
It’s not often that we see success stories such as this in a market that is constantly evolving to the times, but it’s refreshing to see one studio do everything needed to ship out a major AAA title on their own and make all of their development costs back in quick fashion. The fact that it was less than a week is no easy feat in and of itself. Now we’ll have to wait and see what IO Interactive does with their next big project, Project 007, which is shaping up to be the company’s biggest venture yet.
Hitman III is available now for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/Series S, Nintendo Switch, and PC through the Epic Games Store and Google Stadia.