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[daveo42]

It had good reception ? I only remember first part being bad technically on PC.

I think initial impressions were soured by how the game was supposed to roll out over time as opposed to full access to every map and assassinations at once. After the work IO put in for each and every map, impressions and word of mouth improved, but it was far too late for the game in terms of overall sales.

Surprising too, since it seemed like a decent amount of people were playing it well past release. Then again, maybe I just watch too much GB and GB-affiliated content. Some of their videos (including Hitmas) was some of the best stuff they put on their site last year.

 

[Toki767]

You will get more Absolution and generic run of the mill shooters and like it.

Well you're not going to get that stuff from Square Enix, at least.

It kind of feels like maybe Square Enix are going to try to double down on Japanese games while I imagine just keeping Tomb Raider around as their only big western IP.

 

[texhnolyze]

Square Enix looks like on track for going full mobile by the next decade.

They could make mobile games that's 100x cheaper than AAA while making 10x more revenue.

 

[Lime]

Someone put out the Phil Spencer Bat Signal. These guys would be a great choice to do a new Perfect Dark and Microsoft has money to burn.

That's a death sentence for the studio

 

[gablekevin]

C'mon Sony you have a pretty big E3 gamer goodwill gesture just being handed to you on a silver platter

 

[UrbanRats]

They produced the best game in 2016, and one of the most fun and brilliant games i've played in a while... of course they get the boot!

 

[Nirolak]

Do you think someone will likely buy them without any IP changing hands?

Maybe. Both Ubisoft and ZeniMax have bought studios recently just to throw staff at their existing projects.

Hiring for AAA is super hard right now.

Similarly you'll notice how EA just moved BioWare Montreal's staff to Battlefront instead of having layoffs, or Activision did the same with High Moon and Vicarious Visions by dumping them on Destiny, whereas before both would just lay off staff without a second thought.

I could imagine a world where Ubisoft takes them to have more warm bodies for Assassin's Creed or The Division 2. They did buy FreeStyle most recently, and that was also a purchase from another publisher situation.

 

[Turin Turambar]

Hitman didn't actually seem to sell all that well despite the reception.

Hitman went ignored by so many due to its episodic nature, and then the retail release came and went with a whimper and no promotion. It's a shame.

Hitman had a mixed reception in the first episode, where the episodic nature and the online requirement were the news people were commenting. That changed slowly until the final Episode, as that point the real news was the high quality of the game.

So the word of mouth has changed over time. I think a Season 2 would be much better received because now it has the positive feedback of S1, even better if they relax the online requirement.

 

[ezekial45]

Damn, I always that Hitman (2016) did well. Sorry to hear this. The developers are excellent.

 

[Budi]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1196748

Fuck you Neogaf, you did this!


Edit:

Why wouldn't they put them on some Marvel property like they did with Crystal Dynamics? Seems like they could make a competent third person action game with some Marvel franchise

Could a Punisher game work from them? I think it could, but I'm not super familiar with the comic I admit.

 

[Kalor]

Based on the sales it's not surprising but it's disappointing. Episodic was the perfect direction for Hitman so I wish it did better. I'm sure someone will pick IO up, it's just a matter of if they get their ip or not.

 

[M.D]

Why wouldn't they put them on some Marvel property like they did with Crystal Dynamics? Seems like they could make a competent third person action game with some Marvel franchise

 

[vivekTO]

C'mon Sony you have a pretty big E3 gamer goodwill gesture just being handed to you on a silver platter

Microsoft has far better reasons to buy IO than Sony. They are currently looking into Episodic SP content and IO suits there needs better.

 

[Taruranto]

For comparison:

Hitman Absolution: Owners: 3,020,229 ± 50,168
Hitman: Owners: 631,227 ± 23,003

Hitman Absolution also shipped 3.6 million in a few months whereas presumably Hitman is no where near that.

That's a pretty big difference, I wonder what happened. Absolution's bad reception? The always online?

Word of mouth felt pretty strong for this game, pretty much everyone I heard talked about it positively.

 

[ZeroX03]

Oof.

Not surprising, looking at the sales numbers. With all hands on deck from their western studios being Marvel and Tomb Raider, they probably don't want to bother with anything selling less than a million copies.

Hitman still sold over a million, that's just Steam numbers. Quite possibly sub-two million though.

 

[Stider]

Sony should buy then and put them to work on Syphon Filter.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

Oof.

Not surprising, looking at the sales numbers. With all hands on deck from their western studios being Marvel and Tomb Raider, they probably don't want to bother with anything selling less than a million copies.

Don't the 600k reported sales in the OP come from SteamSpy though? I'd imagine it broke 1m across all platforms, but one has to wonder whether 1) subsequent episodes would have sold as well as the first, and 2) Whether Square Enix decided to take action after the season 1 compilation failed to make a dent in the boxed market...

 

[Nirolak]

That's a pretty big difference, I wonder what happened. Absolution's bad reception? The always online?

Word of mouth felt pretty strong for this game, pretty much everyone I heard talked about it positively.

I think the business model was awkward, and the generation transition made selling a game like this a lot harder.

 

[duckroll]

That's a pretty big difference, I wonder what happened. Absolution's bad reception? The always online?

Word of mouth felt pretty strong for this game, pretty much everyone I heard talked about it positively.

They didn't spend 10 million on a Visualworks CG trailer with hot killer nuns this time. That must be why.

 

[A-V-B]

Hitman didn't actually seem to sell all that well despite the reception.

The always online part of the game has totally alienated me from a buy, no matter how good word of mouth has been. I don't know if that affected anyone else's opinion, but it sure did mine.

 

[Boss Mog]

You need to know your audience. Gamers that buy Hitman games are mostly people that hate episodic releases.

 

[UrbanRats]

As much as I think the episodic nature actually helped the game from a quality standpoint, I think it hurt it from a sales perspective.

Plus the online connection DRM, PLUS coming off of Absolution, which was a turd of a game.
But they did get a lot of good word of mouth (that's why i got the game late, in the first place).
A season 2 could've done much better, especially without the DRM bullshit.

 

[daveo42]

Maybe. Both Ubisoft and ZeniMax have bought studios recently just to throw staff at their existing projects.

Hiring for AAA is super hard right now.

Similarly you'll notice how EA just moved BioWare Montreal's staff to Battlefront instead of having layoffs, or Activision did the same with High Moon and Vicarious Visions by dumping them on Destiny, whereas before both would just lay off staff without a second thought.

I could imagine a world where Ubisoft takes them to have more warm bodies for Assassin's Creed or The Division 2. They did buy FreeStyle most recently, and that was also a purchase from another publisher situation.

Depressing, but likely. If this does happen and they get picked up by some other publisher, I'd expect some of them to split off and start an indie studio or something.

 

[Spyder_Monkey]

Deus Ex- Dead
Hitman- Dead
Tomb Raider- Should be dead (hated the 2013 reboot and Rise doesn't look much better)

Meanwhile the biggest surprise hit of the year was Neir freaking Automata.

 

[SargerusBR]

Episodic format + online only hurt the game a lot.

 

[Gitaroo]

deep silver got deep pocket right? Buy them

 

[Rymuth]

The western division of Square-Enix has been a mess in general.

* Kill Sleeping Dogs and United Front Games

* Pulled a messy exclusivity deal that stunted Tomb Raider's sales

* Put Deus Ex on ice

* And now, getting rid of I-O

 

[Nirolak]

Deus Ex- Dead
Hitman- Dead
Tomb Raider- Should be dead (hated the 2013 reboot and Rise doesn't look much better)

Meanwhile the biggest surprise hit of the year was Neir freaking Automata.

Nier had a vastly different budget profile though. Rise of the Tomb Raider moved 1.4 million copies on Steam alone, dwarfing Nier's total sales. It just also cost way, way more to make.

 

[Mister Wolf]

That's a pretty big difference, I wonder what happened. Absolution's bad reception? The always online?

Word of mouth felt pretty strong for this game, pretty much everyone I heard talked about it positively.

Always online plus episodic releases.

 

[Coreda]

Good, maybe the next Hitman won't be riddled with useless online only stuff, Squeenix is seemingly obsessed on having those kinds of stuff in all their western developed games.
Wait, IO still owns the Hitman IP right?

Would be interesting to know whether the online-only controversy impacted sales that much. Was a turn-off personally, despite news of improved offline support, but I also realize that many didn't mind it at all given the other online features.

 

[PinballRJ]

Let me guess FF15 didn't sell well so they decide to kill the western game first, if so fuck you square

 

[Toki767]

The western division of Square-Enix has been a mess in general.

* Kill Sleeping Dogs and United Front Games

* Pulled a messy exclusivity deal that stunted Tomb Raider's salsa

* Put Deus Ex on ice

* And now, getting rid of I-O

Yeah.

But they got a Marvel game so that'll make them money I imagine.

Still, they aren't really helping themselves with their western IP. Not that those IP seem to matter too much to them.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

I also remember talk of Squeenix going in hard on episodic games, kinda cutting up things that didn't need to be episodic, due to the popularity of Telltale games and the like. Unfortunately, it was Telltale's The Wolf Among Us that taught me to wait until the entire season was out before I dove in.

This was a thing indeed, though they went episodic in order to get revenue back from ongoing AAA game projects as soon as possible, rather than sink millions into a project over a 3-5 year period and see no return until that period is over, where the market may have changed radically. They wanted a better way to react to change and get sales sooner rather than later. Looks like it didn't work out for Hitman which is a crying shame given how well executed it was.

I suppose there's no chance that FFVII Remake will underperform in its episodic format either, so Square Enix management will see their decision to flog off IO Interactive as validated a few years down the line. Shame.

 

[Joey Ravn]

"We have this studio that has turned a dying IP into what many consider to be 2016's GOTY. They have provided amazing continued support and have turned their game into a platform that can be improved and expanded upon for years to come. We better sell the off." - Square-Enix, 2017

What. The. Fuck.

Hopefully IO sticks the landing and Hitman gets the respect it deserves. It's by far one of my favorite games of the past 10 years.

 

[polyh3dron]

IMO, SE sabotaged the latest Hitman game with the absolutely shitty episodic business model.

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

I would have thought the new one had sold not just better but a fair bit better.... maybe not better revenue but at least on lower price volume.

Hitman and Deus Ex MD selling poorly... Sleeping Dogs is dead. No new Kane & Lynch.. I wish Square Enix-published urban shootout/city action games did better...

 

[M.D]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1196748

Fuck you Neogaf, you did this!


Edit:


Could a Punisher game work from them? I think it could, but I'm not super familiar with the comic I admit.

That seems like a neat idea, although I was thinking Deadpool at first (not sure if Activision actually owns the rights for those games tho), but none of this will happen anyway :<

 

[Deadstar]

Hitman, the best game of last year, is in trouble, while a new garbage Call of Duty game is released every year. What is wrong with this world.

 

[ULTROS!]

It's weird that the best sellers last gen of SE were the Eidos titles, nowadays they aren't big sellers anymore. Maybe due to the market?

Deus Ex- Dead
Hitman- Dead
Tomb Raider- Should be dead (hated the 2013 reboot and Rise doesn't look much better)

Meanwhile the biggest surprise hit of the year was Neir freaking Automata.

Dragon Quest Builders also did well, did around 1.1m WW.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

This really sucks. Hope this somehow ends well for IO

Is the writing on the wall for western developed AAA third party single player games?

 

[JayEH]

Let me guess FF15 didn't sell well so they decide to kill the western game first, if so fuck you square

xv sold fine, it seems like it was Hitman's sales that were the problem.

 

[DieAntwoord]

Always online plus episodic releases.

Always online is why I dumped it. I didn't even bother trying episode 1 and I got the entire season for 5 bucks from Sonys retail loyalty site. No way I'd spend full price for it if my gameplay gets trashed for losing a connection or dropping my wifi.

 

[benzy]

Let me guess FF15 didn't sell well so they decide to kill the western game first, if so fuck you square

XV made back its budget day 1.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

The western division of Square-Enix has been a mess in general.

* Kill Sleeping Dogs and United Front Games

* Pulled a messy exclusivity deal that stunted Tomb Raider's sales

* Put Deus Ex on ice

* And now, getting rid of I-O

I mean

They also became a home for AAA Marvel development

 

[chronic_archaic]

Deus Ex- Dead
Hitman- Dead
Tomb Raider- Should be dead (hated the 2013 reboot and Rise doesn't look much better)

Meanwhile the biggest surprise hit of the year was Neir freaking Automata.

Tomb Raider games are really good and I know the first sold very well, I'm pretty sure Rise must have sold decent for it to get a sequel.

 

[entremet]

The episodic format for bigger games is probably dead now. The reaction was not positive.

 

[DieAntwoord]

Hitman, the best game of last year, is in trouble, while a new garbage Call of Duty game is released every year. What is wrong with this world.

They did it to themselves. Episode one was fucking amazing but regardless of what cane next the always online ruined that. Which is sad because I felt like it was starting out to be the best Hitman game in the series.

 

[Xater]

Despite the episodic release working out for this game, I can see how it turned off a lot of people. On the other hand the game might also pay for the sins of it's predecessor.

 

[Screaming Meat]

Begs the question(s): who pays for the servers for HITMAN 2016 and how long will they stay up for?

 

[Un4]

First Deus Ex put on ice and now this.. what the hell is SE doing?