Eidos Life President, Ian Livingstone, recently conducted an interview with GamingIndians. He discusses all of Eidos’ upcoming high-profile titles from Batman: Arkham Asylum to HITMAN to Kane & Lynch to Thief.
Batman: Arkham Asylum was recently delayed. However, the delay will ensure that the game is perfect for Rocksteady, the developer. Livingstone says that they’re “expecting review scores in the 90s,” so the game was worth going that extra distance to make it the game it has to be.
The next HITMAN game is “being worked on” at IO Interactive, however there’s been “no announcement on the release date yet.” The studios working on three games at once: HITMAN, Kane & Lynch 2 and Mini Ninjas. He warns that since the game has yet to be announced, everything you hear about the game is “purely speculation.”
Speaking of Kane & Lynch 2, Livingstone confirms that “there’s a target date for September,” but adds “these games often slip because the production times are so difficult to predict due to the amount of work they have to put into them now in high-end consoles.”
On to the next Tomb Raider. Livingston says that the next game “will surprise a lot of people and reinvigorate the franchise.” He adds that “There are some remarkable things we’re doing in the next Tomb Raider to make you say, ‘Oh Lara, I love you so much!’”
Eidos Montreal is currently working on Deus Ex 3, however, they’ve announced a while back that they have a second project in development. When asked if the game was Thief IV, Livingstone answered that “You might think that; I couldn’t possibly comment.” However, he did say that the game is the most wanted franchise from them so he told us that “you might want to draw your own conclusions, but I cannot confirm that.” I think it’s safe to say E3 is going to be Eidos Montreal’s Thief IV revealing.
On the subject of Deus Ex 3, Linvingstone confirmed that the game will not release this year. Bummer.
Eidos has a lot of franchises, but what about new IPs? “Yes, we are certainly working on new IPs,” Livingstone confirmed, however “they won’t be ready for this year.” The company is interested in the world of online multiplayer games because it is a “huge market” that they “cannot ignore”, making references to the great amount of people playing Call of Duty or FIFA online.
Looks like Eidos has all of their priorities planned out. Now we can only wait until E3 where they’ll most likely reveal Thief 4 and hopefully first footage of Deus Ex 3.