Square Enix Montreal’s next-gen Hitman terminated

The online profile of a developer working on IO’s next-gen Hitman game claims the game has been cancelled.

Videogamer spotted the news on the LinkedIn profile of senior game designer lists the game as having been cancelled last year. The profile of a second IO member now suggests that an “unannounced Hitman game” is currently in development for smartphones.

Talk of a next-gen instalment in the Hitman franchise first emerged way back in 2011, ahead of the release of the series’ most recent release Hitman: Absolution in November 2012.

However, in June last year it was revealed that IO had cut its workforce by around half to focus expressly on the Hitman IP.

Story originally published on MCV.

UPDATE: Square Enix has clarified that a next-gen Hitman title is in development at IO Interactive, while the publisher’s Montreal studio is concentrating on smartphone games. 

It has also been pointed out that the LinkedIn profiles mentioned above are in fact Square Enix Montreal employees.

Square Enix released this statement: “There’s a bit of confusion around the Hitman projects currently in development at Square Enix owned studios and so we wanted to take the time to clarify what each studio is working on to clear up some of this confusion.

"IO Interactive is developing a new, triple-A Hitman game that will be coming to PC and next-gen consoles and Square Enix Montreal is fully focused on mobile development of games some of which are related to the Hitman franchise. We look forward to sharing more details about these titles later this year.”