Hitman 2 Was Under Development at Square Enix Before IO Walked

IO Interactive opens up about their relationship with Square Enix and Warner Bros. ahead of the release of Hitman 2 in a recent interview.

Square Enix, the publisher of prior Hitman title, decided to drop IO Interactive at a crucial time. But IO Interactive were onto something long before a Hitman 2 announcement even came out. As the release date of Hitman 2 is almost here developers opened up about their struggles.

Although that decision Square Enix was not a sweet move developers seem to be over it. At first, they admitted to having difficult times to reach this point but all seems well now. Associate Director of IO Interactive, Eskil Mohl spoke of the things that led to the release of Hitman 2. Mohl revealed both good and bad sides to the process of Hitman 2 development in an interview with GameSpot.

First of all, he told how taking Hitman 2 so close to its launch feels like nothing short of a miracle. There was once a time for IO Interactive when they felt like left for dead. Mohl recalled this time by saying:

Oh sh*t, we’re flying over the Atlantic and we don’t have enough gas to get there. So what the hell do we do?

This was a big shock for the developers as they had something cooking for Hitman 2, already. So, a key part of surviving this crisis was cutting off some of their people. Although it was a hard decision it was the only way to ensure the release of the game in the future.

We had to let a lot of people go. But that made the team that was left really come together (and say) ‘Let’s do this, we believe in the product’. We were already working on Hitman 2 and then this thing happened.

But according to Eskil, this was also a turning point for them to put all their efforts into making Hitman 2. The dedication to creating the stealth video game rose to new levels. Mohl explained:

It sort of unified us in a way. Yeah, it’s been super hard, but its always a lot of work, but it’s fun work. It really made us go, ‘Yeahhh we can do it!’.

Meanwhile, IO Interactive seems quite happy with their current publishers, Warner Bros. Also they expressed their gratitude to Square Enix and didn’t blame them for anything.

The developers have revealed all of exotic Hitman 2 locations in a new trailer. Sean Bean was also featured in their Elusive Target#1 trailer. With a few days left in its release, you might as well dive into the extensive gameplay footage of Hitman 2.

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