21 Facts About IO Interactive

IO Interactive was acquired by publisher Eidos Interactive for in March 2004, which saw itself acquired by Square Enix and renamed as Square Enix Europe in 2009.

IO Interactive performed a management buyout in June 2017, becoming independent and regaining the rights to their Hitman and Freedom Fighters franchises.

IO Interactive employs 200 people as of January 2021 and operates two subsidiary studios: IOI Malmo in Malmo, Sweden; and IOI Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain.

The resulting company, IO Interactive, was established on 16 September 1998, with Reto-Moto's seven employees—Jesper Vorsholt Jørgensen, Rasmus Guldberg-Kjær, Martin Munk Pollas, Karsten Lemann Hvidberg, Jacob Andersen, Janos Flosser, and David Guldbrandsen—serving as the founders and initial staff of IO Interactive.

Early on, IO Interactive conceptualised a fantasy massively multiplayer online game entitled Rex Dominus Nordisk Film staff asked the development team to cease production on Rex Dominus and "test [themselves]" by developing a "simple shooter" instead.

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IO Interactive had previously worked on Deus Ex and Thief: The Dark Project, which had heavily exposed him to the stealth game mechanics he wished to see in Codename 47.

In October 2001, Eidos IO Interactive announced Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, a sequel to Codename 47.

In 2003, IO Interactive decided to open a Hungarian offshoot, named IO Interactive Hungary.

However, after the training had been finished, IO Interactive realised that there were 50 people with talent but no leadership that could guide them when in Hungary.

In October that year, Electronic Arts released Freedom Fighters, an IO Interactive-developed third-person shooter which was previously announced as Freedom: The Battle for Liberty Island in May 2002.

At the time, IO Interactive was Europe's 10th largest video game developer, with 140 staff members employed at their offices.

In January 2009, Eidos Interactive announced IO Interactive-developed Mini Ninjas, a family-friendly game, as opposed to all of the studio's previous titles.

Shortly after the announcement of Mini Ninjas, in April 2009, Eidos IO Interactive was acquired by Japanese video game conglomerate Square Enix for.

Eidos IO Interactive was reorganised over the course of 2009 and became known as Square Enix Europe in November that year.

However, many fans of the series, including the developers at IO Interactive, felt like Absolution was leaning too far into the mainstream, as a result of which they were losing their core player base.

At the time, IO Interactive had 170 employees, and was the largest video game developer in Denmark.

On 16 June 2017, IO Interactive announced that it had performed a management buyout, as a result of which they became independent.

IO Interactive confirmed shortly after the split that all profits from 2016's Hitman would from that point go directly to the studio.

On 16 January 2019, IO Interactive opened a subsidiary studio, IOI Malmo, in Malmo, Sweden.

IO Interactive continued its partnership with WBIE and, by October 2019, had turned it into a multi-IP deal.

In June 2020, IO Interactive announced Hitman 3, the conclusion to their World of Assassination trilogy, which was released on 20 January 2021 for Windows computers and current and next-gen consoles, with IO publishing the game themselves.