Hitman - Codename 47 and Hitman 2 - Silent Assassin sold 600,000 and 1.8 million copies respectively. The company went from a modest DKR123.000 profit in 2001 to a DKR40m last year. "It is not a question of whether or not we are going to Hollywood, only of when," IO Interactive's financial director Morten Borum told local media. IO Interactive is currently developing Hitman, 3 set for a spring 2004 release, but it is too soon to say when the film might be ready and if its release will coincide with the new game.

"We are very selective with who we are talking to in regards to the film," Borum continues. "If the film is great it will be a great marketing tool for our game. But we are not talking about Dogme here. We are competing in the league of Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings."

The third edition of the game has a $43.3m (DKR300m) budget. IO Interactive was founded in 1998 by five Danish computer programmers, who had worked in the US. They struck up a relationship with Egmont-owned major Nordisk Film, which today holds a stake of the company.