IO Interactive
(or "IOI" as they're better known by) is a Danish video game developer based in Copenhagen. Founded in September 1998 from a merger between the demoscene-born Reto-Moto and the established studio Nordisk Film, their debut title was Hitman: Codename 47 released in 2000, and though they are mostly known for the games in the Hitman franchise, they have occasionally branched out into different series throughout their history.
IO Interactive was acquired by Eidos Interactive in 2004, whom they remained under until Eidos itself was acquired by Square Enix in 2009. They remained a Square subsidiary until May 2017, when they were let go as a result of Square seeing Hitman (2016)'s sales numbers as poor, and IOI became an independent company, as well as retaining the rights to Freedom Fighters (2003) and Hitman a month laterTL;DR , while the Mini Ninjas and Kane & Lynch game rights stayed with Square Enix. The developer are now an independent company, but used Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment as a publisher for Hitman 2. Hitman 3 is their first ever self-published game.*
Like with many Square Enix companies, the developers at IO Interactive were not against working closely with porting house Feral Interactive, and did so ever since 2009, who have ported their games over to other OS's, with ports of Mini Ninjas, Hitman: Absolution and Hitman (2016) being made for Mac OS X, and the latter game also getting the company's first ever (and currently only) Linux Port. An enhanced Hitman: Blood Money mobile and Switch port, entitled "Hitman: Bloody Money Reprisal" was also handled by Feral.
Jesper Kyd would often work as their in-house composer throughout much of their early history. The late Peter Svarre took over and composed for Mini Ninjas. Currently, their in-house composer is Niels Bye Nielson, who took up that mantle beginning with Hitman (2016).
In late-2020, the development studio secured the rights to create an officially licensed James Bond game; tentatively titled "Project 007". A second unnamed project was revealed in early 2023, currently codenamed "Project Fantasy", an online RPG, that is also in the works.
Body of work:
- The Hitman series
- Hitman: Codename 47 (2000)
- Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002)
- Hitman: Contracts (2004)
- Hitman: Blood Money (2006)
- Hitman: Absolution (2012)
- The World of Assassination Trilogy
- Freedom Fighters (2003)
- The Kane & Lynch series
- Kane and Lynch: Dead Men (2007)
- Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days (2010)
- Mini Ninjas (2009)
Licensed Games
- Project 007 (TBA)
