Hitman and 007: First Light developer IO Interactive has confirmed that it is closing its Istanbul office, laying off staff in the process as part of cuts that the studio said were "necessary" to help the company stay afloat in the future.
IO said it made these cuts after Xbox dropped out of funding Project Fantasy, the company's mysterious upcoming RPG. IO has now "regained full ownership of the project and our IP" related to Project Fantasy, and IO will now fund it independently. However, this meant that IO had to pull back in other areas, including efforts for "external projects and potential mobile game derivatives."
"We had to find a new balance for the long-term future of the studio, focused on the success of our main internal core titles," IO said. "This has meant making changes as well as proposed changes across our studios: the closure of our Istanbul studio and starting a process to part ways with colleagues who have been a meaningful part of what makes IOI what it is."
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.