Hitman dev IO making new IP after Absolution

By Robert Purchese Published 1 December, 2011

Not Kane & Lynch, not Mini Ninjas.

Danish Hitman developer IO Interactive will work on new IP following the completion of Hitman Absolution.

That's what studio head Niels Sorensen is reported to have told Gamasutra.

There was, however, no mention of what this new IP will be.

Sorensen explained that after Hitman Absolution, released next year, part of IO will go on to collaborate with new studio Square Enix Montreal on a brand new next-gen Hitman game. The rest of IO, Sorensen said, will begin work on the new IP.

"When people work on the same IP for some time, I believe that there's a sort of creative drain," Sorensen told Gamasutra. "Thankfully we managed to make sure we keep focusing on different IPs and keeping people fresh."

"We've built an incubation department whose focus is work on new IP and prototypes, and all sorts of things for existing and new IP. And that's a really interesting sort of secret place where they cook up a lot of new things."

IO has tried new IP for much of this seventh generation of consoles. The last Hitman game released was Blood Money in 2006, which was a last-gen game tarted up for Xbox 360. And what fun it was.

After Blood Money, IO embarked on gritty new co-op shooter Kane & Lynch. The series started confidently in 2007 with Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, but plummeted below average with sequel Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days in 2010.

In between the Kane & Lynch games, IO tried yet another new tack: kid-friendly action game Mini Ninjas, which was forgettable but enjoyable.

So, where will IO go next?

Kane & Lynch 2.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 6 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #1 6 months ago

    A pity they seem to have abandoned Mini Ninjas.

  • Nova1977 #2 6 months ago

    I don't like the direction the new guys at IO are taking with their games.

  • steve1979 #3 6 months ago

    I'd love to see a Mini Ninjas 2. The first one was excellent.
    Edited by steve1979 at 01/12/11 @ 10:04

  • Wizard83 #4 6 months ago

    Way too long between Hitman games! Blood Money was awesome!

    AC coming out yearly is shit but 6 yearly cycles is way worse!

  • Zerrin #5 6 months ago

    "Not Kane & Lynch" - YAY!

    "Not Mini Ninjas" - BOO!

    Hopefully Yahtzee warded them off making any more K&L "sequels, rip-offs and wank".

  • toa_boa #6 6 months ago

    :| Mini Ninjas was so cool, only thing missing was a split screen co-op.

    Want!

  • PlugMonkey #7 6 months ago

    Wherever they go next, I'll be watching with interest.

    Hitman is one of my all time favourite franchises, and Freedom Fighters is one of the greatest forgotten masterpieces of all time.

    I would love for that to get the HD treatment that seems to be vogue at the moment for great games that got passed over on release, such as Shadow of the Colossus and Stranger's Wrath. Freedom Fighters really deserves to be in that category as well.

  • ic4ruz #8 6 months ago

    @Jonathan_Fakenham Yes, quite an underrated game.
    Really enjoyed it. I don't know why but the graphics in that game blew me away, especially that sene where you float down a river and on the riverbank are those pink japanese trees.

    It also had quite varied gameplay that I liked (:

  • Baranga #9 6 months ago

    Where is my Freedom Fighters sequel?

  • NicolasVH #10 6 months ago

    The subtitle "Not Kane & Lynch, not Mini Ninjas." is actually pointless, since the title literately says 'new IP', which excludes K&L and MN.

    Sorry, I just felt like nagging a bit.

  • GavinUK86 #11 6 months ago

    Let's start a petition for a new Mini Ninja's! That game came out of the blue and was pretty good fun.