![Square Enix Montreal's Hitman game canned in favor of mobile game, designer says [updated]](https://d1lss44hh2trtw.cloudfront.net/resize?type=webp&url=0&width=1032&sign=hjPf1YK82dV-QT8oL3v_lLzC62zix4hvLjTqBJFhHgY "Square Enix Montreal's Hitman game canned in favor of mobile game, designer says [updated]")
Square Enix Montreal's Hitman game canned in favor of mobile game, designer says [updated]
The Hitman franchise was supposed to be annualized, with alternating duties between Square Enix Montreal and IO Interactive. However, those plans have been put to rest.
Update: Square Enix has clarified to Polygon that while Eidos Montreal is working on a mobile Hitman, creator IO Interactive is still working on a new Hitman for PC and next-gen consoles.
Original: The Hitman franchise was supposed to be annualized, with alternating duties between Square Enix Montreal and IO Interactive. However, those plans have been put to rest, as Montreal's AAA console project has been canned.
A LinkedIn profile of senior game designer Richard Knight discovered by VideoGamer confirms the cancellation of Montreal's game. The project was canned last year in order to make way for a new Hitman game destined for mobile devices instead.
The shift in focus for Square Enix shouldn't be too surprising, especially after lackluster sales of the previous game in the series, Hitman Absolution. The company restructured afterwards, which explains the silent termination of Montreal's Hitman game.
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replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, Square Enix Montreal's Hitman game canned in favor of mobile game, designer says.
The Hitman franchise was supposed to be annualized, with alternating duties between Square Enix Montreal and IO Interactive. However, those plans have been put to rest.-
For some reason I have played each Hitman game despite not really liking any of them. I think I just really liked the ideas more than the execution of any of them. I guess I just always hoped that "this next hitman game will finally be the one that gets it right".
Pulling off a perfect kill in Hitman is AWESOME, but more often that not my attempts just turned into "Crap I wore a janitor outfit into an area that shoots janitors on sight (for some reason). Now I have to stand in a room with one entrance and kill everything that comes through it." -
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More like "If Infinity Ward and Treyarch can alternate years on Call of Duty, we can throw two studios at an AAA IP and annualize it!". Which Eidos tried with Hitman Absolution, and got lukewarm reviews and horrible sales, and therefore failed on the first iteration of the franchise reboot.
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Too much of a good thing.
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This really sucks. I was looking forwards to this.
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Bad move. Mobile = FAIL.
Keep the faith S-E and make another Hitman and stop trying to clock 15 million sales with one game. This isn't COD. Bring your expectations and your budgets within reason and you will all be happier. Looks like you are chasing cash rather than trying to make the best game possible. -
I was just thinking that this doesn't necessarily mean IO aren't working on a sequel themselves, and lo and behold I click on on the news article and an update shows this is the case. It seemed a bit unlikely that they'd totally throw away the franchise after a single failure, particularly with all the effort they seemed to put in to marketing it.
Lets just hope IO listened to the feedback, because god damn a proper new Hitman game in that engine will be glorious.
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