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Hitman delayed till March 2016

jbug617

Banned
https://hitman.com/en-us/news/important-release-news
It’s safe to say HITMAN is the biggest venture we’ve ever undertaken at Io-Interactive. Not just in terms of scope and ambition but also in terms of the size of the game world itself. The playable area and density of our locations goes beyond anything we’ve built before. We’re striving to create a series of living, breathing worlds in those locations and we get pretty obsessed about every detail that you’ll experience.

On top of that, we’re going for a new release model where we put out a good chunk of the game when it begins and then release the remaining locations over time. We want to make absolutely sure you all get the best possible experience when you join, so we’ve made the difficult decision to move the initial release date to March 2016. These few extra months will mean we can add more to the launch content of the game, more than we had originally planned, and then follow with a tighter frequency of updates, which ultimately will create a better game for everyone. And in the end, that’s what we’re all looking for.

To give you a sense of the scale when it comes to our various locations, we’ve compared our Paris Showstopper mission to the largest level in Hitman: Absolution. As you can see, lots of challenges, plenty of space to set up death traps, and a huge supply of targets for Contracts mode.

Moving a launch date is never an easy decision, we know it’s frustrating to have to wait a bit longer for the game, but we truly believe it will mean we can deliver a better launch and overall experience. We’ll share more details next week about the full release schedule and scope of HITMAN in general so keep a look out for that.

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I wonder if they will launch it on disc day one now, their digital early access/episodic (whatever they want to call it, or pretend its not) release plan was a terrible idea and a recipe for disaster imo
 

Fat4all

Banned
This is the version that's digital only and going to release all its content over time, right?

Does this mean the full physical release is getting pushed too, or are they gonna shorten the DLC period I wonder?
 
That's alright. There were too many other, more important games, set for release this fall.

Maybe it will end up being more robust at launch, too.
 

Krakn3Dfx

Member
Probably for the best, I dunno anyone who was super hyped for it anyway given the tepid response of the last Hitman game. 2016 takes it out of the heat of a pretty massive holiday season.
 
As long as its good I don't care if a game gets delayed. Polish it. Finish it. Make it the best it can be. Tired of unfinished rushed messes.
 
December seemed like kind of a dumb launch window for the game honestly, even just for business reasons.

Especially since Square Enix already had Just Cause 3 coming out in December.

The delay doesn't really make much difference to me though. I'm excited to play it, because it seems like a return to what made Hitman a fantastic franchise, but I'm just going to wait until it's actually done.
 

antitrop

Member
Probably for the best, I dunno anyone who was super hyped for it anyway given the tepid response of the last Hitman game. 2016 takes it out of the heat of a pretty massive holiday season.

December was already a pretty barren month, it was only going up against Just Cause 3 and Rainbow Six: Siege.
 

Nzyme32

Member
On top of that, we’re going for a new release model where we put out a good chunk of the game when it begins and then release the remaining locations over time. We want to make absolutely sure you all get the best possible experience when you join, so we’ve made the difficult decision to move the initial release date to March 2016. These few extra months will mean we can add more to the launch content of the game, more than we had originally planned, and then follow with a tighter frequency of updates, which ultimately will create a better game for everyone. And in the end, that’s what we’re all looking for.

The problem remains in this "new model". Selling at the price of a full game and with an essentially unfinished product, but with no way to pay for the available content while paying for the rest that is added later, once a user is more comfortable with what they play of it - similar to an episodic game.

I won't purchase unless they change the model for which it will be priced. I'd simply wait for all the content to release and then make an informed decision
 

Jb

Member
Fuck, that was my most anticipated release for the rest of the year :(
Just Cause better be good.
 

NYR

Member
I hope they now put out the retail disc release out at the same time as the digital copy.
 

dreamfall

Member
Profound sadness. I was thinking this was going to happen as we hadn't heard much. Does this affect the beta dates? I just hope it's great with huge BM inspired levels. Take your time, make it wonderful!
 

dezzy8

Member
Spring 2016 is going to be stacked with all of these delays. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these titles get delayed to summer 2016.
 

Pandacon

Member
Well, I was planning on just waiting till the full game is out, so until I hear that particular date, this is all meaningless.
 

Elandyll

Banned
Hopefully Just Cause 3 is not striken by delayitis. Outside of Battlefront, it's my most anticipated game to play around Xmas...
 

killroy87

Member
Yeah, I'd honestly take a delay into Summer and just have them release a full game. This weird episodic format never made sense.
 

Interfectum

Member
As someone who played the alpha... the gameplay was there and all but there were a lot of little things that needed to be cleaned up (AI, UI, etc). I'm not really surprised, still sad though. That alpha left me wanting to play more. :(
 
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