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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Hitman developer IO Interactive (IOI) has become that most elusive of things: a success story in an industry rocked by layoffs, funding cuts, and studio closures.

Over the past three years, the Danish company has opened new studios in Brighton and Istanbul, expanded its production slate with a new online fantasy RPG, and recruited senior talent to assist with its high-profile James Bond title codenamed Project 007.

It achieved all of that while supporting and growing Hitman: World of Assassination, which continues to attract players by the bucketload—as evidenced by the over 150 million daily active users that logged in recently to take out Conor McGregor when the MMA star was introduced as an Elusive Target.

How has the studio delivered stability and growth when other companies across the industry are floundering? According to chief development officer Veronique Lallier, the answer is rooted in the company's decision to ditch shareholders and go independent back in 2017.

Speaking to Game Developer earlier this month, Lallier said it was "heartbreaking" to see how many studios and developers have been impacted by closures and layoffs, and explained IOI has "aways been very conscious and very careful" about how it grows to avoid similar situations.

For Lallier, expanding requires finding the right talent for the right projects, ensuring you can unleash the passion of your employees so they can fulfill their potential. "You need to focus on the game, and the type of game you're making—while making sure you aren't spreading yourself across too many project," she adds.

After working hard to improve and develop Hitman as a franchise, for instance, it made sense for IOI to expand with Project 007. Securing the rights to develop a James Bond title might seem like a no-brainer, but Lallier explains those big decisions have to make sense. She says leaping from Hitman to Project 007 felt natural because they're both essentially "secret agent" titles—which is a genre baked into the DNA of the studio.

Independence for IOI means developing projects without compromise​

Multi-project studios like IOI require a lot of talent, and Lallier says that once you've welcomed people into the fold, it's vital you leverage them in the right way. "Making games is very hard. I'm not going to lie. So, I think the recipe of success is to be focused on your passion," she explains. On a practical level, that means allowing the teams within IOI to iterate rapidly and without fear. Playing every day. Testing every day. Sharing ideas with colleagues across disciplines and locations. Challenging each other to "find the fun." It's a highly collaborative approach that works because IOI put the foundations in place.

For example, although IOI has studios in multiple locations, Lallier says they're all in timezones that overlap. "You can based in Copenhagen, Malmo, Barcelona, Brighton, or Istanbul and working across the same project," she says. "That's how we are divided, but if you look at the geography, we make sure we're all in the same ballpark of timezones. So we don't have people on the West Coast of America and we don't have people in Japan."

She adds that managing your finances as an independent studio is also "critical," and says "lean" spending during the earliest phases of development can help provide a runway for success. Lallier feels those decisions, which might sound mundane on paper, have ultimately given IOI the edge. Notably, she suggests the company was only able to put that plan in place because it's not beholden to the whims of shareholders or a parent company.

"I think studios can suffer when they're on the stock market and so on—when there are big changes happening. All of a sudden you can lose millions and billions, but we don't have this problem," she says.

"We have different challenges as an independent studio, because you might not have the power of a big publisher, but I think the advantage is that the constraints we have are the constraints we can control to some extent. Then we can forecast—we can see how much money we have. How much time we have based on that burn rate. Then we can find ways to still create the thing that makes sense without compromising so much because you have less external influences that you need to handle."

Studios can 'suffer' on the stock market: Hitman dev IO Interactive says independence brought stability

IOI chief development officer Veronique Lallier explains how splitting from previous owner Square Enix paved the way for growth.

www.gamedeveloper.com

 

[Topher]

One of the big reasons why I'm not a fan of all these acquisitions.

 

[calistan]

Hitman: World of Assassination, which continues to attract players by the bucketload—as evidenced by the over 150 million daily active users that logged in recently to take out Conor McGregor when the MMA star was introduced as an Elusive Target.

What are daily active users? I think that mission was available for three days, so if that's seriously 50 million people playing per day, on just that mission alone, then no wonder the company is in good shape.

 

[Mokus]

They brag about it until they end up on the stock market despite the previous successes like so many other game companies.

 

[MrA]

it's a typical risk vs reward trade-off,
independent you're free to act as you see fit, and if you have a hit its all yours, but if things go south the consequences are greater.
the publicly traded influx of cash plus you're not risking your own money, but accountable to corporate governance and profits are shared,

 

[channie]

Was the Elusive target a paid event? 150 million users sure feels like a typo when the upper estimates on Steam is less than a million copies sold. If you include consoles + EGS (with which it had a 1-year exclusive deal) it just does not add up.
And the free starter pack didnt include the Elusive Target .

I really loved that franchise but the numbers are clearly inflated.

EDIT: SteamDB says 8k players at peak during the Elusive Target MMA event. So more like 150k across all plats not million.

 

[HL3.exe]

No shit, venture capital has always worked pretty great for developing games and game studios. It created some of the greatest development houses of all time. (Eventhough it has problems of there own)

It kinda went to shit when outside shareholders came into the picture. Because late stage is gonna late stage.

 

[Kuranghi]

Veronique Lallier please fix the gamma in your game so I can finally play it after 4 years of owning it.

I played 2500 hours of Hitman and Hitman 2, put up with the fucked presentation of 3 for 1.5 missions and then sacked it even though I was having great fun, might try it on my PS5 to see how it looks but I believe it's the same there. Also I'd have to get all the base tools/weapons again on a new PS5 copy which I'm not want to do a 3rd time.

Usually I'd just play in SDR when HDR is borked but that's fucked too since its a general presentation issue. Hitman 1 and 2 are not affected and they were re-graded for inclusion in Hitman 3 so it's an assthetic choice clearly.

It's so fucking distracting, like someone has turned the Black Level to 90/100 on my TV and adjusting in-game settings don't fix it since they capped the lower limit of the gamma slider in-game even if you edit config files .

 

[calistan]

Was the Elusive target a paid event? 150 million users sure feels like a typo when the upper estimates on Steam is less than a million copies sold. If you include consoles + EGS (with which it had a 1-year exclusive deal) it just does not add up.
And the free starter pack didnt include the Elusive Target .

I really loved that franchise but the numbers are clearly inflated.

EDIT: SteamDB says 8k players at peak during the Elusive Target MMA event. So more like 150k across all plats not million.

I thought I got a reasonably good score on that mission but I'm something like #130,000+ on the leaderboard. It seems to have far more entries than other missions, so who knows how many played it? This is on Xbox - no idea if the leaderboards are cross platform.

 

[channie]

Did 160k as a score (bottom 40%) and landed around 15k position on PC. Afaik leaderboards are not shared.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Making video games is a different ball game

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Independence for IOI means developing projects without compromise​

Multi-project studios like IOI require a lot of talent, and Lallier says that once you've welcomed people into the fold, it's vital you leverage them in the right way. "Making games is very hard. I'm not going to lie. So, I think the recipe of success is to be focused on your passion," she explains. On a practical level, that means allowing the teams within IOI to iterate rapidly and without fear. Playing every day. Testing every day. Sharing ideas with colleagues across disciplines and locations. Challenging each other to "find the fun." It's a highly collaborative approach that works because IOI put the foundations in place.

For example, although IOI has studios in multiple locations, Lallier says they're all in timezones that overlap. "You can based in Copenhagen, Malmo, Barcelona, Brighton, or Istanbul and working across the same project," she says. "That's how we are divided, but if you look at the geography, we make sure we're all in the same ballpark of timezones. So we don't have people on the West Coast of America and we don't have people in Japan."

She adds that managing your finances as an independent studio is also "critical," and says "lean" spending during the earliest phases of development can help provide a runway for success. Lallier feels those decisions, which might sound mundane on paper, have ultimately given IOI the edge. Notably, she suggests the company was only able to put that plan in place because it's not beholden to the whims of shareholders or a parent company.

For once a game company that sounds like they know what they are doing.

Although the last paragraph she makes it sound like shareholders and parent company want bloated costs. I would had thought the opposite.

In my experience, gong lean and cost effective is the norm at every company I've been at. It's simply a matter of corporate culture and employing people who are good with that when they get hired. To be successful and have happy employees, you dont need free food, ping pong table and knitting classes on company dime. If anyone applying for a job craves that stuff as big priorities in a job you're hiring the wrong person. And any company which thinks they got to resort to this kind of stuff to hire/retain employees must be one miserable place to work.

 

[Hypereides]

No shit, venture capital has always worked pretty great for developing games and game studios. It created some of the greatest development houses of all time. (Eventhough it has problems of there own)

It kinda went to shit when outside shareholders came into the picture. Because late stage is gonna late stage.

This. "In the moment", when it happens, the influence is unnoticeable. It takes years to materialize. Look no further than when pure MBA suits (e.g. Zelnick) took over back in the 7th gen and fast forward to now to see how their thinking and decision making has affected the industry as a whole.

Those folks don't have a single creative bone in their entire body. Their line of thinking is mainly monetary.

 

[Danjin44]

These days being independent is much safer than getting bought by big company.

I especially don’t trust Sony and Microsoft when come owning my favourite studios.

 

[ozz ex machina]

These days being independent is much safer than getting bought by big company.

I especially don’t trust Sony and Microsoft when come owning my favourite studios.

You say that but it's not the reality in my opinion.

If you are an independent studio what happens if you make one game to huge success, take on a slightly more ambitious project, expand the team a bit, you then can't afford the marketing it deserves, the game under performs massively in sales. Your business is fucked. You can just get unlucky. Especially now when there are 1000s of games being made of decent quality. It's not like 15 years ago when the market was so much more restricted.

There is a reason a lot of smart people want to sell. At least then if they do get laid off, they may get decent severance packages (although I'm from the UK, USA probably has much worse policy on that sort of stuff).

 

[Danjin44]

You say that but it's not the reality in my opinion.

If you are an independent studio what happens if you make one game to huge success, take on a slightly more ambitious project, expand the team a bit, you then can't afford the marketing it deserves, the game under performs massively in sales. Your business is fucked. You can just get unlucky. Especially now when there are 1000s of games being made of decent quality. It's not like 15 years ago when the market was so much more restricted.

There is a reason a lot of smart people want to sell. At least then if they do get laid off, they may get decent severance packages (although I'm from the UK, USA probably has much worse policy on that sort of stuff).

I look at it this way, independent developers are much freedom in what they want to make.

Vanillaware can do what they want and take risks because they are independent….if these devs were owned by Sony or Microsoft, they would been let go by now because their games don’t sell crazy high.

you looking at from business perspective and I’m looking at from creative perspective.

 

[ozz ex machina]

I look at it this way, independent developers are much freedom in what they want to make.

Vanillaware can do what they want and take risks because they are independent….if these devs were owned by Sony or Microsoft, they would been let go by now because their games don’t sell crazy high.

you looking at from business perspective and I’m looking at from creative perspective.

I completely understand the benefits creatively lol. But we are discussing reality here. As soon as project gets a bit bigger someone at these indie studios has to run a business. Which means HR, employees rights, people with families and bills to pay. That's a lot of pressure. I can absolutely see why I'd want to sell if possible.

Ideal scenario would be bigger studios are better managed, they have smaller budgets, teams and projects. We'd see more games, more originality. But unfortunately mainstream game fans are addicted to fidelity and games as a service. So that golden period is never coming back.

 

[SportsFan581]

At least they have the ability to just focus on the profit/loss and keep things on target. They don't need to concentrate on increasing profit percentage YoY in the way that the traded companies are, even if that is something they still have an eye on.

 

[channie]

I agree with O ozz ex machina : only one poorly performing title and the company sinks. Yeah gamedev is creative but at the end of the day if not enough money comes in you're toasted.

 

[Danjin44]

I agree with O ozz ex machina : only one poorly performing title and the company sinks. Yeah gamedev is creative but at the end of the day if not enough money comes in you're toasted.

Creative games can and should still exist but they don’t need to be stupid high budget, this is why AA game exist.

if only game high sales allowed to be made with no unique games then entire gaming industry going boring as fuck.

 

[{insert code here}]

I agree with O ozz ex machina : only one poorly performing title and the company sinks. Yeah gamedev is creative but at the end of the day if not enough money comes in you're toasted.

Not really. It depends on how they manage their finances. Keep costs down and have enough assets to cover everyone's salary for a few years and they should be okay.

The other big aspect to them being private is they don't have the privilege of being backed by a billion dollar mega corp (no safety net) so they've got more of an incentive to work hard and not release garbage products.

 

[ozz ex machina]

Creative games can and should still exist but they don’t need to be stupid high budget, this is why AA game exist.

if only game high sales allowed to be made with no unique games then entire gaming industry going boring as fuck.

I don't think you understand that for a small studio, all it takes is your moderately to small budget game to not sell and you are fucked without deals with publishers etc. It's why gamepass is so appealing to them.

 

[Danjin44]

I don't think you understand that for a small studio, all it takes is your moderately to small budget game to not sell and you are fucked without deals with publishers etc. It's why gamepass is so appealing to them.

Are you familiar with Vanillaware? They are small studio and their games are niche but even so they take risks, they don’t make sequels and often than not they go over budget. This happened with both 13 Sentinels and Unicorn Overlord.

 

[Gojiira]

How arrogant, all it takes is one bad release, one bad update etc and that stability goes when the fanbase moves on. Being independent has considerable risks not to mention that without a publisher a new project will require the studios own funds…What a dumb thing to brag about

 

[SHA]

One of the big reasons why I'm not a fan of all these acquisitions.

The "Lazy ambitious skill-less who don't fit in any category" workers.

 

[64bitmodels]

They brag about it until they end up on the stock market despite the previous successes like so many other game companies.

They can stay off if they play their cards right, like Valve does.

 

[64bitmodels]

How arrogant, all it takes is one bad release, one bad update etc and that stability goes when the fanbase moves on. Being independent has considerable risks not to mention that without a publisher a new project will require the studios own funds…What a dumb thing to brag about

As opposed to being public where you are forced to put out exclusively bad games with terrible monetization and stability just to please some talentless trust fund babies who don't know or care about video games?

Hell nah. Fuck the stock market and fuck shareholders. IO should stay private for as long as humanly possible

 

[Gojiira]

As opposed to being public where you are forced to put out exclusively bad games with terrible monetization and stability just to please some talentless trust fund babies who don't know or care about video games?

Hell nah. Fuck the stock market and fuck shareholders. IO should stay private for as long as humanly possible

Lol missed the point entirely. Nowhere did I say being public is better, only pointed out that being arrogant about being independent is way more risky since using your own funds versus a publishers funds carries huge ramifications if they dont deliver….

 

[64bitmodels]

since using your own funds versus a publishers funds carries huge ramifications if they dont deliver….

Which encourages the publisher to create bangers and not waste hundreds of millions of bucks on a single game.

Publishers make you complacent like that

 

[{insert code here}]

How arrogant, all it takes is one bad release, one bad update etc and that stability goes when the fanbase moves on. Being independent has considerable risks not to mention that without a publisher a new project will require the studios own funds…What a dumb thing to brag about

As opposed to being corporate where you're held to the fire by the executives and lose all creative control over your work?

Is this a joke post?

 

[channie]

As opposed to being corporate where you're held to the fire by the executives and lose all creative control over your work?

Is this a joke post?

Both are hard on devs, there's no silver lining.

 

[Gojiira]

As opposed to being corporate where you're held to the fire by the executives and lose all creative control over your work?

Is this a joke post?

Are you stupid? READ…Its ignorant of you and THEM to act like being independent doesn't also have huge risks. My post was literally pointing out without a publisher there is zero safety net, and one bad game or loss of players is enough to close a studio, arrogance about this fact is not a good sign either… My gawd theres so many dense people in this thread

 

[{insert code here}]

Are you stupid? READ…Its ignorant of you and THEM to act like being independent doesn't also have huge risks. My post was literally pointing out without a publisher there is zero safety net, and one bad game or loss of players is enough to close a studio, arrogance about this fact is not a good sign either… My gawd theres so many dense people in this thread