I chose IO-Interactive, because they are the developers of my favorite game series: Hitman.
They don’t seem to be unique compared to other game developers, except for having the Hitman series. They were independent for 6 years then they were bought out by Eidos Interactive and then Eidos Interactive was bought out by Square Enix. According to the lecture we had in class about video game development, those buyouts sound pretty standard. It would be hard for an independent company to compete funding wise with larger companies. Also, publishers acquiring rights to development companies and their hit series also makes sense financially for the publishers.
I might like to work for this company. Their headquarters is in Denmark. I have never lived outside of the United States, so that could be a good experience. At the same time, there are development companies that have cool locations within the United States. I have never lived in a large city in the U.S. and it would be easier to visit family if I stayed in the U.S.
It sounds like a fun environment. There website says that they eat breakfast together, lunch together, and party together. Also, it is very multicultural with employees from 23 different countries. There are apparently a lot of their kids gathered together for Christmas. I don’t like kids much, so that doesn’t sound very appealing.
Though the setting sounds nice, I would expect many tech companies to have a relaxed and fun office environment. Game development companies should especially cater to people’s fun sides. That should attract the best talent and help people stay creative.
I feel unqualified to work at any really cool, small, well-known development company. I feel like working at a game development company would be a good fit for me, but I have no experience and would expect the competition to be people who have wanted to develop games their whole lives and have massive portfolios of artwork or programming work.
Their development history of the Hitman series started in 2000. That has been their biggest success. Since then, they have developed 4 more Hitman games and branched off into some different titles; Freedom FIghters, Kane and Lynch, and Mini Ninjas. As of now, they are solely in charge of the Hitman series. Not being a fan of their other games, I agree with the decision whether theirs or Square Enix’s to have them focus on the HItman series.
According to their website they employ about 200 people. That seems fairly small to me, so I would expect competition for their jobs to be very high.
Sources:
http://www.ioi.dk/jobs/
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