Despite Square Enix Montreal's recent Hitman game cancellation, the series is far from finished.
Update: It looks like Square Enix Montreal hasn't compelely turned away from the Hitman franchise according to a recently released statement from Square Enix proper:
"There's a bit of confusion around the Hitman projects currently in development at Square Enix owned studios and so we wanted to take the time to clarify what each studio is working on to clear up some of this confusion. IO Interactive is developing a new, AAA Hitman game that will be coming to PC and next-gen consoles and Square Enix Montreal is fully focused on mobile development of games some of which are related to the Hitman franchise. We look forward to sharing more details about these titles later this year."
So I guess we'll be getting at least one mobile game based in the Hitman universe, not too terribly surprising given the subtle popularity of Hitman Absolution's mobile companion app which allowed players to peruse and queue up contracts to play as well as purchase weapons and even unlock exclusive rewards in the game proper.
Original story: A new next-gen/current-gen Hitman game being developed by Square Enix Montreal has been quietly cancelled but series creator IO Interactive still has plans for Agent 47.
According to the LinkedIn profile of Square Enix Montreal’s senior game designer Richard Knight, the unannounced “Hitman Project” for current/next-gen consoles and PC that the studio has supposedly been working on since 2011 has officially been cancelled. No details on what exactly the project consisted of were ever released and many are speculating that this is more of Square Enix trying to get their house in order as opposed to further financial troubles.
Thankfully, this means that more focus can be put on IO Interactive’s own upcoming “new AAA Hitman project” which they announced last year and are still dutifully working on despite layoffs at the studio. Again, no details are known about this upcoming game but considering IO’s excellent pedigree of past Hitman games (the most recent being the well-received Hitman Absolution), it’s no-doubt hard for fans not to get excited.
Hopefully IO and Square Enix will have more info to share regarding this new Hitman project sometime in 2014.
