Here’s How Hitman’s Handling Its Episodic Release

<p>Many a fan might&&num;8217&semi;ve wondered aloud how IO Interactive&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Hitman<&sol;em> would work since its <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;e3-2015-hitman-coming-to-ps4&sol;">head-scratching announcement<&sol;a>&period; Just what fans would be getting for their money&&num;8217&semi;s worth&&num;8217&semi;s been a mystery nearly two months later&comma; but now the studio&&num;8217&semi;s Hannes Seifert weighed in at this year&&num;8217&semi;s Gamescom&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&&num;8220&semi;When we compare just the single-player missions&comma; the overall scope will be bigger than Hitman&colon; Blood Money&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Seifert claimed&period; &&num;8220&semi;Over the course of 2016&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;ll also add new locations&period; to travel to&period; All of that is included in one price&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>According to Seifert&comma; the plan is to release new missions&comma; contracts&comma; and whole cities for <em>Hitman<&sol;em> incrementally after its release this winter&period; Nevertheless&comma; players will still be looking at the standard &dollar;60 price-tag for stepping into Agent 47&&num;8217&semi;s shoes again and that means no micro-transactions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&&num;8220&semi;There&&num;8217&semi;s no option in the game to spend any money&&num;8211&semi;and that&&num;8217&semi;s very dear to us&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Seifert claims&period; &&num;8220&semi;The game is going to cost &dollar;60&comma; and anything that comes afterwards is included in that&period; There is no way in the game to spend more money than that&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>There are&comma; however&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;e3-2015-hitman-relearns-the-art-of-the-kill&sol;">just as many ways<&sol;a> to kill unsuspecting strangers&period; Though 2012&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Hitman&colon; Absolution<&sol;em> boasted 50 active AI&comma; this year&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Hitman<&sol;em> will bulk that number up to 300 AI to poison&comma; strangle&comma; and disappear in&period; But don&&num;8217&semi;t expect those AI to be dragging down your game time with too much talk and not enough action&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;88813" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-88813" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;04192618&sol;Hitman-2015-Sniping-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-88813 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;04192618&sol;Hitman-2015-Sniping-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Hitman 2015 Sniping BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-88813" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Agent 47 taking aim &lpar;Hitman&comma; IO Interactive&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Instead&comma; <em>Hitman<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s missions will be structured around a narrative framework&comma; but it won&&num;8217&semi;t be bogged down by <em>Absolution<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s heavy-handed storytelling&comma; Seifert says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&&num;8220&semi;The story takes a bit of a backseat in the game&comma; but there is a plot that connects all the missions you play&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Seifert said&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Seifert said further that IO Interactive intends for <em>Hitman<&sol;em> to be a platform that players can expect new content from for at least the next 3-4 years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This episodic model will reportedly be comparable to <em>Absolution<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;hitman-absolution-review&sol;">Contracts mode<&sol;a> in which players could create limited-time assassination targets for other players online&period; The mode found surprise success and was one that &&num;8220&semi;almost 40 percent of all Absolution players tried&&num;8221&semi; at launch&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Hitman&comma; <&sol;em>as it&&num;8217&semi;s being titled&comma; will release digitally this <strong>Dec&period; 8th<&sol;strong> for PlayStation 4&comma; PC&comma; and apparently Xbox One only on PSN&comma; Steam&comma; and Xbox Live&period; The studio says that you can expect a hard copy of <em>Hitman<&sol;em> sometime next year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the meantime&comma; IO Interactive plans for more news to come on the game in the weeks following Gamescom&period; Stick around for that and more right here at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com">BagoGames<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Via<&sol;strong> <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;gameinformer&period;com&sol;games&sol;hitman&sol;b&sol;playstation4&sol;archive&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;07&sol;io-interactive-explains-hitman-s-confusing-digital-release-plan&period;aspx">Game Informer<&sol;a> &amp&semi; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;gamespot&period;com&sol;articles&sol;hitman-for-xbox-oneps4pc-day-one-content-will-be-a&sol;1100-6429549&sol;">Gamespot<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;