Eidos: Kane & Lynch "will not disappear"
"Amazing" characters have "brand equity".
Violent action duo Kane and Lynch will return despite the mixed reception to their previous outing and lay-offs at Danish developer IO Interactive.
That's according to Eidos life president Ian Livingstone, and he should know: he sits on Square Enix's green light committee that decides which games are made and which are scrapped.
"We haven't made any announcements about Kane & Lynch going forward, but we all know that Kane and Lynch are two amazing characters who have a lot of brand equity," Livingstone told Eurogamer in a new interview published today. "People like those guys, so they're not going to disappear."
Eurogamer's Lane & Lynch 2 review turned up a 4/10, but others have gone higher.
Despite mixed reviews, Kane & Lynch 2 did the business for publisher Square Enix. It went straight in at number one in the all-formats UK chart.
"Kane & Lynch 2 clearly had a Marmite effect on people," Livingstone added.
"You either loved it or hated it. Some people liked the juddering camera, home video style. Others absolutely hated it. Some loved the characters. Some didn't like the characters.
"But it's artistic, thrill-a-minute instant action stuff. I thought it was a great game, but I can understand people might not have liked it."
Livingstone's comments echo those of IO general manager Niels Jørgensen, who said in October that low review scores were "fine", and that Kane & Lynch 2 was "a bit different, if not to everyone's taste".
Even if another Kane & Lynch gets the green light, fans may be in for a long wait before it emerges; IO is heavily-rumoured to be hard at work on Hitman 5 as we speak.