Since IO Interactive bought its independence from Square Enix in 2017, the studio has gone from strength to strength, and with the recent announcement of a new studio being established in Barcelona, they look set to expand even further, especially with Hitman (which is on bit of a break right now), Project 007, and a new unannounced IP all being emphasized by the developer going forward. But IOI has other plans for expansion in place as well.
Speaking in an interview with GamesIndustry, IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak said that moving into third party publishing is something else that the company has its sights on, and that it’s “very likely” that they publish games from other developers in the future.
“This is something that’s in motion, and it’s very likely that IO will be publishing not only our own games, but other people’s games in the future, as well,” Abrak said.
That said, Abrak recognizes that the big publishers obviously still have a role to play. He said that even though IO Interactive has firmly moved into self-publishing by now, there’s still a chance that one of its games in the future is published by a big publisher.
“It was just a handful of years ago where this was unthinkable, where it was more just a few big publishers,” he said. “Things are changing. That still works. I think the big publishers have a role to play going forward. I’ll be open and say it’s very likely IO will have one of our games published by someone else. That’s very possible.”
Currently, IO Interactive is also working on seasonal post-launch content for Hitman 3. You can read more on that through here.