TL;DR: In 2017, Square Enix offloaded Hitman developer IO Interactive, and some buyers valued the studio at just $1. IO chose a management buyout instead, kept the Hitman IP, and went independent. Nine years later it self-published 007 First Light (released 27 May 2026), which scored 88 on Metacritic and 98 on OpenCritic — the best-reviewed James Bond game in decades.

IO Interactive at a glance

• Studio: IO Interactive (IOI) — independent developer and publisher
• Founded: 1998, Copenhagen, Denmark
• CEO & Co-owner: Hakan Abrak
• Independent since: June 2017 (management buyout from Square Enix)
• Owned/known IP: Hitman, Freedom Fighters, Kane & Lynch; Project Fantasy (in development)
• Studios: Copenhagen, Malmö, Barcelona, Istanbul, Brighton
• Latest release: 007 First Light (27 May 2026, PS5 / Xbox Series X/S / PC)

Why was the studio valued at just $1?

In 2017, you could have bought one of the most respected studios in gaming for a single dollar. That isn’t a figure of speech: when Square Enix moved to offload IO Interactive, the studio’s finances were so heavy with running costs and liabilities that, as reported by GamesRadar+, some companies offered to take over IO for just $1, according to CEO Hakan Abrak. The studio, he later admitted, had not turned a profit in almost ten years.

The roots of the crisis trace back to Hitman: Absolution (2012), a project Abrak describes as running roughly seven years, going well over budget, and demanding two years of brutal crunch, as reported by ClutchPoints — only to underwhelm commercially and with fans.

Why did IO Interactive leave Square Enix?

IO Interactive left Square Enix because the publisher decided to divest it. On 11 May 2017, Square Enix announced it was withdrawing from the IO Interactive business as part of its financial results, as covered by PCGamesN. Abrak had been CEO for fewer than 90 days when then–Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda called to tell him IO was being cut loose.

The “safe” survival options all involved gutting the studio — one proposal involved cutting headcount by around 80% and pivoting Hitman to free-to-play, as covered by ClutchPoints. Abrak refused.

How did the studio become independent?

IO’s management pursued a buyout. Crucially, the deal let the studio keep the rights to Hitman — a rare moment in an industry where studios almost never walk away from a publisher with a marquee IP. On 16 June 2017, Abrak announced IOI was officially independent and still owned its flagship franchise, calling it a “watershed moment.”

It wasn’t a clean victory. Independence came with painful layoffs — IO shed close to half its staff, as reported by PC Gamer, with peers like Remedy Entertainment and EA DICE publicly offering to take in affected developers. On day one, independence looked less like freedom and more like triage.

How IO Interactive rebuilt after going independent

Freed to make its own calls, IO rebuilt around one idea: treat Hitman as a living platform rather than a one-and-done release. The result was the World of Assassination trilogy — Hitman (2016), Hitman 2 (2018) and Hitman 3 (2021) — eventually merged into a single continuously updated package. By 2025 it had surpassed 80 million players and 25 million units sold.

That success funded a dramatic expansion. IO grew from a single Copenhagen office into a five-studio operation across Copenhagen, Malmö, Barcelona, Istanbul and Brighton, moved into self-publishing, began backing original IP, and even started publishing other developers’ games, as covered by The Game Business — much of it built on the back of premium single-player titles at a time when the industry consensus favored live service.

Why 007 First Light was IO Interactive’s biggest gamble

In November 2020, IO announced it had secured the license to make an original James Bond game and would both develop and publish it itself, as reported by PC Gamer, working with rights holders MGM and EON Productions.

The scale of the bet was enormous. Where Hitman 3 cost around $20 million, as reported by The Game Business, Bond was a substantially bigger investment — and to deliver it, IO roughly doubled in size toward 400-plus employees, as covered by TweakTown, with no deep-pocketed parent behind it. It was also the first time in the studio’s history it built a game around someone else’s character rather than one of its own creations, as covered by The Game Business.

Is 007 First Light a good game? What did it score?

Yes. 007 First Light launched on 27 May 2026 to the best James Bond review scores in a generation: an 88 on Metacritic and a 98 on OpenCritic, making it the highest-rated James Bond game in decades, as reported by KitGuru. The game is an original Bond origin story in which the player is a young, reckless recruit earning Double-0 status — and reviewers have praised its writing, globe-trotting set pieces, and a combat system that blends IO’s signature open-ended level design with faster, more cinematic action than Hitman ever attempted.

What this story means for the industry

IO Interactive is, right now, one of the strongest arguments in gaming for studio independence. It chose ownership over a quick payout, kept its people and its IP, refused a trend it didn’t believe in, and reinvested its way from near-bankruptcy to one of the year’s biggest releases.

For developers, it’s a blueprint. For publishers and investors assessing studio health, IO is a textbook case of what “well-run” looks like: a clear creative identity, durable owned IP, diversified revenue, and the discipline to grow on its own terms. The studio nobody wanted to buy for a dollar made the best James Bond game in decades — proof that independence doesn’t remove risk, it just lets a studio choose which risks are worth taking.

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