IO Interactive fumbled the release Hitman 3 on Steam and the Hitman Trilogy hard. First, the developer strangely decided that the trilogy of games is worth $100, plus $60 for people who want the DLC too. Then, the company released the year-old Hitman 3 on Steam at full price. Hitman 3 on PC was a timed exclusive on the Epic Games Store for the first year. However, many PC gamers don’t like to support Epic’s practice of purchasing exclusivity for games and instead wait for the Steam version.
To make matters worse, at the time of writing, Hitman 3 on the Epic Games Store is 50% off, while the Steam version is still full price, $60. Naturally, Steam users have been angry at the price IO Interactive has decided to charge for its year-old game. The Steam reviews are currently “mixed” with most complaining about the pricing of the game. Worse still, the game, which is a single-player title, has been unplayable for some because of server issues. Always online single-player is an unpopular decision at the best of times. When combined with the extortionate pricing and server issues it has created a storm of anger at IO Interactive.
In an attempt to try and appease those who have purchased Hitman 3 on Steam, IO has announced that they will be upgrading all purchases on the platform. The company will be upgrading everyone who bought the $60 standard edition to the $90 deluxe edition. Those who bought the deluxe edition of the game will receive the Seven Deadly Sins Collection which contains the first year of DLC for the game. IO announced that the offer will be valid for everyone who has already purchased the game as well as any purchases made between now and February 19, 2022. Whether that will be enough to please fans who are also complaining about microtransactions and the game always being online remains to be seen.