Danish developer IO Interactive made a reputation for itself over 20 years in the past when it launched Hitman: Codename 47, the primary in a protracted line of video games starring everybody’s favourite sardonic murderer with a barcode tattooed on the again of his bald head. The collection has spawned over half a dozen video games, two main movement footage, and many industrial success and significant acclaim.

Now, nevertheless, with the latest Hitman sport trilogy accomplished and all folded collectively beneath the Hitman: World of Assassination umbrella, IO Interactive is transferring on to 2 different tasks: a James Bond 007 sport – of which little is understood about thus far – in addition to a brand new on-line fantasy-RPG, which seems to be like it can come after Bond and we all know even much less about. Hitman, the studio says, is on hiatus for now.

All of this preamble is to arrange what I’m about to say, and that’s this: Microsoft, if it isn’t already, ought to be taking a protracted, exhausting have a look at IO Interactive as its subsequent potential acquisition goal – no matter whether or not or not the Activision-Blizzard deal is authorized by regulators, however particularly if it isn’t. The actual fact is, there aren’t numerous impartial AAA sport improvement studios left available on the market. Embracer Group purchased Gearbox (and an entire bunch of others), Sony took Bungie off the market, Microsoft has spent the previous a number of years buying the likes of Obsidian, inXile, and Playground, and so on.

To be truthful, IO’s prowess outdoors of Hitman is, for now, comparatively unproven. The unique Xbox third-person technique shooter Freedom Fighters was superior, however that was a very long time in the past. The 2 Kane & Lynch video games had been additionally a very long time in the past, they usually weren’t superior. Nevertheless, the studio looks like the proper match for James Bond, and if it really works, that would develop right into a long-term partnership with the licensor. The web fantasy-RPG is extra of a wild card, but it surely’s so totally different from something the studio has ever performed that it’s sure to be, on the very least, a mission that has creatively energized the IO group.

As such, I’m unsure there’s a greater bang-for-your-buck acquisition goal on the market than IO. In fact, that’s in the event that they even need to be purchased. They had been owned by Eidos Interactive (later Sq. Enix) for a lot of, a few years, however the studio finally negotiated its independence. That it has not solely survived however thrived within the years since speaks to a well-managed group. Microsoft can be sensible to snap them up – once more, if the studio is even keen to sit down down on the negotiating desk – and add a whole bunch of gifted builders in addition to one confirmed franchise (in a style Xbox at the moment has no presence in), one doubtlessly big licensed sport that could possibly be to Xbox what Goldeneye was to Nintendo, and one fantasy-RPG that, nicely…OK, I assume Xbox already has loads of in-house RPG expertise. However hey, an excessive amount of is rarely sufficient, proper?

Little doubt Phil Spencer has already picked up the cellphone and referred to as IO Interactive in some unspecified time in the future, however on the off probability he hasn’t, I definitely hope he’ll. I’m hard-pressed to consider a extra gifted studio that’s able to delivering AAA success that’s not already been devoured up by another bigger writer or funding group. I suppose we’ll have to attend and see what occurs with the Activision-Blizzard state of affairs first, however after that, I look ahead to seeing what Microsoft does subsequent.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s government editor of previews and host of each IGN’s weekly Xbox present, Podcast Unlocked, in addition to our month-to-month(-ish) interview present, IGN Unfiltered. He is a North Jersey man, so it is “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.