VGC notes that during a
GI Live session with Hakan Abrak, the IO Interactive CEO revealed that
HITMAN 3 recouped its development costs within the first week of sale. He
credits this in part to the January launch of the assassination sequel along
with the fact that it was self-published:
“Once we took those risks and we
saw the light at the end of the tunnel to choose an optimum space for releasing
a Hitman game, we went for it, and for us that was January,” Abrak said.
“Hitman 2 launched in November 18, and there are a lot of big blockbuster games
releasing in November, and I think this was just shortly after Red Dead
Redemption 2, which obviously had an impact on our sales.
“And I’ve always for the longest time been a big fan of the idea of releasing a
Hitman game in January. I always thought that was a great space for a Hitman
game to have the attention it deserves with the kind of game it is. So we
decided for January, not knowing how that would go, we’ve never done that
before, but it turned out to be great timing.”