Io-Interactive announces today that the Hitman title will have “a change to the release structure” meaning that the title will be a “truly episodic AAA game experience”.
The game will release on March 11th with just a single Prologue mission and a Paris location, followed by Italy set to release in April and then Morocco releasing in May. The developers hope to deliver content updates every month. Three additional locations have been announced (unclear if they were already known) Thailand, the US and finally ending the release schedule with Japan in late 2016. On top of having monthly content they plan to release smaller content every week, possibly cosmetic items.
This is what Hannes Seifert, Head of Studio at Io-Interactive, had to say about this new business decision.
“We decided to take the full leap and publish HITMAN as a truly episodic game experience. Part of that decision is for that little bit of extra time to ensure every location we release is at the quality level fitting for a HITMAN game. But the main driving reason is that this will allow us to create a living game that will expand and evolve over time and establish a foundation for the future – this is the first game in a storyline which will continue and expand with future Hitman games.”
The “Intro pack” which includes the Prologue and Paris levels will cost $15 USD (or regional equivalent). Every other location pack will cost $10 USD each as an add on item to the “intro pack”. If you would prefer to buy the full experience it will cost $60 USD (or regional equivalent), the full experience cost will include all of this years content as the content becomes available.
Alternatively you can wait for the disc version which is set to release at the end of this year.
For those of you lucky enough to own a Playstation 4 you will also gain access to “The Sarajevo Six” bonus contracts which includes one contract per location, totaling to six contracts. These missions will see Agent 47 travelling the world in “pursuit of six former members of a paramilitary unit called CIDADA”. These missions are exclusive side missions that have no tie into the main story and are exclusive to Playstation 4 users.
If you can’t wait to get your hands on HITMAN early then you would be happy to know that there will be a beta which starts on “February 12th on Playstation 4 and February 19th on PC. Players can guarantee access to the beta by pre-ordering the Full Experience or the new Intro Pack.”
*Note if players purchase the Intro pack and want to get the full experience you can choose the upgrade pack which is $50USD (or your regional equivalent*
Let us know in the comments below if you think this was a smart move or not to release the game in parts. Does it show lack of faith in the franchise or are they under financial trouble? Who knows but this idea seems like a weird last minute change.
Source: Press Release, Hitman News