Hitman was a success when it launched into the market in 2016. The video game, for the most part, took place after the events of Hitman: Absolution, but one of the unique aspects to this particular installment was the fact that developers IO Interactive decided to release the game episodically. This has become a trend lately where development studios release sections of a video game over a course of a few months.
As mentioned, the 2016 release of Hitman also followed this trend and while the game was a success in the market, developers are looking to go back towards the traditional video game launch. It was during PAX West 2018 that IO Interactive’s Sven Liebold revealed to GamesIndustry.biz why the team decided to go back towards a full video game launch.
During their conversation, Sven stated that IO Interactive noticed that there were fans of the Hitman series that didn’t care for the game being split up and released over the course of a few months. Likewise, the development studio finds that this games-as-a-service plan was something of a trend that they didn’t want to follow.
“A lot of people were very happy with the episodic format, and it worked for us in the regard that when you play in one location for around one month, and then the next one drops, we sort of re-educated the player that we are all about replayability. And we want to make the game fun, so it’s not a chore. We want you to feel like ‘Yeah, I want to play this game.’ So it’s not about rushing through a level. You can go in and do different things, try different things, and people started to realize, ‘Huh, this is what Hitman’s all about.’
But then we had people who were not so happy with that format. So for Hitman 2 we wanted to bring everyone together so everyone’s happy.”
As for the sequel, Hitman 2 will follow the events of the 2016 Hitman release where Agent 47 attempts to find the Shadow Client. Currently, the game is set to launch on November 13, 2018, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC platforms.
[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]
