Job postings on IO Interactive's website (spotted by Gamerzines ) suggest that cold-blooded screw-ups Kane and Lynch might come back for another job together.
In addition to programmers for "an unannounced AAA action title," IO is also looking for a senior multiplayer programmer to lay "the foundation for a yet unannounced 3rd person game with strong cooperative multiplayer elements." Taken together, these clues strongly point toward another Kane & Lynch game.
Still, this is hardly a smoking gun. After all, it would be surprising to see a third Kane & Lynch after the harsh treatment Dog Days received from critics, and the speed with which it was consigned to bargain bins.
But as Eurogamer points out, Square Enix's Ian Livingstone suggested the publisher might not be willing to throw in the towel on these characters. He said, "We haven't made any announcements about Kane and Lynch going forward, but we all know that Kane and Lynch are two amazing characters who have a lot of brand equity. People like those guys, so they're not going to disappear."
Kane & Lynch has been a frustrating series, although consistently one of my guiltier gaming pleasures. It's hard to deny that they are conventional and very easy cover-based shooters, but I've always admired them for bypassing stylish faux-grittiness and going straight for vileness and despair. Even though the historical record tells me I should be skeptical of a third game in this series, I can't help but hope that this time the gameplay and level design will match the style and spirit.
