Hitman (2016) and Hitman 2 were both great games. When it came to sales, though, the latter outpaced the former - and it wasn’t just because of good word of mouth. 2016’s entry to the series was released differently from most games: in content bursts, spaced out by about a month or two each. The team at IO Interactive envisioned the releases as episodic and cinematic, but it ended up feeling stunted to many players and (regrettably) hurt their sales in the long run.
Hitman 2 was released as a standard game, with post-launch maps instead coming as DLC in the form of the bank and Haven Island locations. The sales were generally improved from its predecessor, so despite very favorable opinions of both games, 2 ended up being the clear winner in the marketing strategy. Now, with Hitman 3 announced for next-gen, we have to wonder - which model are they going to use this time?
Because of the commercial success of Hitman 2, it seems likely we’re going to get a standard release again. But before we speculate, let’s look at some of the reasons they tried the episodic release in the first place (and why it didn’t pan out in quite the way the studio had hoped and expected it to). At launch, Hitman could be purchased in two ways - as an “intro pack” consisting of the first two levels, sold at a much lower price than a full game, or at full price. Those who bought the intro pack would not gain access without purchasing the “episodes” that followed, while those who bought the full-priced game received them as they released.
The major problem with the service release model was that players who bought the full game initially sometimes felt they were getting less out of it: if they bought the full game at its March launch, they ended up waiting until the end of October the same year for the final level - over half a full calendar year just for the last map. In addition to that, it couldn’t have a retail release until after it was finished, potentially blocking out those who prefer hard copies of games. Then, the other problem struck: boredom.
As good of a game as Hitman was, very few games survive in the hype cycle for over seven months, and the truth is that a lot of people who might otherwise have played and beaten the game had it been full at launch ended up putting it down and forgetting it as other games released and took up their attention. A new episode coming out did not have entirely the same weight and buzz as (to pull an example of a game that released during the Hitman season) Overwatch releasing in May. Because of this, a lot of players never got to the truly fascinating maps and kills Hitman would later offer.
A bright spot in their game-as-service model was the ability to receive feedback from players while they were still working on the maps and game balancing. It’s tough to say how much of a positive impact that feedback may have had on the end quality of the maps that released with the episodic format - while it’s hard to imagine the team at IO Interactive would make very bad levels, they’ve claimed the good reception emboldened the team to add different types of challenges and change player expectations.
But now that they have two of this gen’s Hitman games under their belt, it’s safe to say they’re experienced enough to deliver on the experience that Hitman fans crave. So even though they haven’t announced Hitman 3’s release formatting yet, here’s to hoping they stick with the complete-at-launch model for their latest and greatest in murder simulation games.
