Reports had cropped up recently suggesting that the next-gen Hitman game from Square Enix has been called off, but the air has finally been cleared by the publisher through a press statement. Fans can rest assured that the game is very much alive, and is being developed by IO Interactive, instead of Square Enix Montreal, as was pointed out by the rumor.
Speculations started flying when Videogamer chanced upon the LinkedIn profile of Richard Knight, who’s the senior game designer at Square Enix Montreal. His profile mentioned that a ‘Hitman Project (Next-Gen Consoles/Current Gen/PC)’ has been called off, and that he is currently prototyping games in short dev cycles for tablet devices.
It appears now that Square Enix Montreal wasn’t really working on the next-gen Hitman game in the first place. It was apparently developing some sort of a mobile spin-off to the series, and that is what has gotten cancelled. According to the statement issued by Square Enix, IO Interactive is developing an upcoming AAA Hitman game which shall be hitting PC and next-gen consoles in the future.
Square Enix Montreal on the other hand, is ‘fully focused’ on the development of mobile titles, some of which are related to the Hitman franchise. No details about this Hitman game are out in the open as yet, but at least we know now who’s at the helm of its development.
The last game from the series was released in 2012 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, and had managed to impress us thoroughly with its open-ended stealth-based gameplay.