It's been a rough week for IO Interactive. The Danish studio behind the Hitman series has confirmed that Xbox is walking away from the publishing and funding agreement it held over Project Fantasy, the studio's ambitious upcoming RPG. The silver lining is that, as a result, IO Interactive now owns the IP outright and takes on full funding responsibility itself, granting it more creative freedom but also forcing a significant internal reshuffle.
That reshuffle comes at a real cost: the studio has announced the closure of its Istanbul office along with layoffs across its workforce, changes it frames as necessary to strike a new balance between available resources and the scope of Project Fantasy, as well as other projects still in the pipeline. It's another reminder of just how tough this year has been for the industry, where even studios sitting on promising projects are having to make painful cuts to keep their long-term plans afloat. It remains to be seen how this shakes out for the RPG's development timeline and what shape the studio takes going forward.
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Source(s): Eurogamer, GameSpot, GamesIndustry.biz