Eidos plans further Hitman titles, comments on Tomb Raider progress
British publisher Eidos has commented on its future development plans following the acquisition of IO Interactive, with a new Hitman game in the pipeline and work said to be progressing well on the next Tomb Raider title.
The company announced its plans to acquire Hitman creator IO Interactive yesterday, and today confirmed that following the launch of the next Hitman title in April, another iteration will be launched in the next fiscal year.
"We will have another Hitman for next fiscal year in the late spring," confirmed Eidos CEO Mike McGarvey, marking this out as one of Eidos' big franchises going forward. As well it might be - Hitman 2: Silent Assassin has sold over three million units to date, after all.
Regarding the progress on the new Tomb Raider title being worked on by Crystal Dynamics in the USA, McGarvey had encouraging words, stating that the publisher is "extremely impressed" with progress on the title so far.
"We're still doing a lot of market research, in terms of direction of the content and the character," he explained, "but the fundamental technology is already complete and the character is up and running in the environment with new moves and new control systems. We're not in a position right now to articulate the creative direction of the franchise. It's still a little early. But we're certainly very excited about what we've seen so far. "
Crystal Dynamics do certainly have their work cut out for them in terms of rehabilitating Lara Croft's career - although the last game, Angel of Darkness, wasn't a disaster in sales terms by any means, it was incredibly late and suffered a savaging at the hands of critics, leading to the removal of the license from original creators Core Design and the departure of studio head Jeremy Heath-Smith from the company and from Eidos' board. The fate of the franchise wasn't helped by the launch of a piss-poor second movie, either.
One intriguing aspect of Crystal Dynamics' work on Tomb Raider which McGarvey didn't comment on, however, is the tall tale which has done the rounds over the past week suggesting that Deus Ex creator Warren Spector has been drafted in from Eidos' Ion Storm Austin development studio to provide creative oversight on the project. This is very much an unconfirmed rumour, but could bode extremely well for the rebirth of the franchise if it's true.