Hitman Developers IO Interactive Opens A New Studio In Brighton

A new studio has been established in Brighton, England, by IO Interactive, the developer behind Hitman.

IO Interactive, an independent developer and publisher, has confirmed that the core team at IOI Brighton is already assembled and will be involved in the development of all their current games.

“We are extremely proud and excited to open our next studio in Brighton, where we see enormous potential to expand our incredible team and attract the very best talent from the exciting UK development scene,”

IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak.

IO Interactive was initially founded in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1998. Since then, the company has expanded its presence with additional studios in Malmo, Sweden in 2019, Barcelona, Spain in 2021, and Istanbul, Turkey more recently.

In November 2020, the company announced the development of an officially licensed James Bond game, tentatively titled Project 007. This game will introduce an original origin story for the iconic character, James Bond.

Furthermore, IO Interactive confirmed in February that they are working on an online fantasy RPG, which is expected to be published by Microsoft for Xbox Series X/S and PC.

While IO Interactive has plans to continue evolving the Hitman World of Assassination trilogy, they have stated that the next major installment in this renowned franchise has been temporarily put on hold.

IO Interactive Brighton will work on various projects with a focus on 007

“The [Brighton] studio is for all projects,” Abrak told GamesIndustry.biz. “We are working a bit differently compared to other companies. They’re more like ‘this studio is working on this project’ or ‘this studio is doing some elements of this project’.

“Across our studios, our projects are front and center. Which means anybody, regardless of what studio or country they’re working from, they can work criss-cross on different projects. It’s not like in Istanbul they’re on 007, and in Brighton, they’re only doing Project Fantasy… they can all work on the different projects.”

He added: “If one project, say, requires 400 people to work on it… putting 400 people in one location and saying ‘that’s what you do’, I don’t believe that’s the right way. I’ve been operating with this concept of a dunbar number, which is when you get more than 140/150 people locally… you lose that sense of belonging.

“I believe we are capable of thousands of people working on projects together, but I just want to avoid having that feeling of a factory, which can happen when you’ve got 500 people in the same place. This is part of keeping things dynamic and making sure our studios don’t overgrow. I would instead meet talent where they are, and be a bit more diverse with different cities and different countries.

“When we get to the critical mass of people we need, I don’t expect any of these studios to have more than 100 to 150 people each.”

Also Read: IO Interactive’s upcoming online RPG might be an Xbox exclusive