Hitman 3 Breaks Even in Less Than a Week
Hitman 3 is a huge success for IO Interactive. The first independent publication from the Danish developer took less than a week to repay the development costs.
If one were to consider Hitman 3 as a prediction for the rest of 2021, gamers could only rub their hands in glee. After the very successful return of Agent 47 in 2016 and his warmly received next adventure two years later, the third installment turned out to be an even better title, and, at least according to some, the perfect finale of the new trilogy. However, as we all know, reviewer acclaim doesn't always translate into player interest. Fortunately, in the case of the new Hitman, high ratings go hand in hand with commercial success. As GamesIndustry.biz learned from Hakan Abraka (president of IO Interactive), it took less than a week for Hitman 3 to break even.
"As the developer and publisher, we are immensely proud that we can say Hitman 3 is already profitable. We have recouped the total project costs in less than a week. That puts us in a really good place and allows us to confidently move forward with our ambitious plans for future projects."
The excellent sales of the third installment of Hitman are all the more gratifying given that it's the first new game to be published independently by the Danish developer. This, incidentally, has enabled the marketing and PR departments to work more closely with the development team to help deliver a "valuable product" to the market. A similar approach will be used for "future projects", which presumably applies to both new Hitman 3 content and new games. These include Project 007 (working title), a game starring Her Majesty's famous agent, which, as Abrak said, could be the start of an entire James Bond trilogy. For now, we should congratulate the Danish developers on their first publishing success.
