Last month at the E3, Square Enix announced the upcoming release of the newest installment of the ‘Hitman’ series, simply called “Hitman”.  The game is set for a digital-only release on December 8, 2015 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a hard disc copy release to come “at some point in 2016”.

In breaking with tradition, however, the publisher has stated that the game will be released “in stages”, as opposed to all at once on release day.  In a Q&A published on the Hitman website on 07/09/2015, Square Enix and IO Interactive (the game’s primary developer), have announced that what is being released on December 8^th “will not be the full game”.  They stated that new missions, locations, and even online live events will be released throughout 2016.

I hear you all screaming, “But wait!  Does that mean that it’s an unfinished, early access game??”  Well, Square Enix & IO Interactive have stated that “No.  All of the content we release live to our players will be complete and polished, whether that’s the locations and missions we release on December 8th, the live events or the locations and missions that we will release in 2016”.  They are stressing that the game will be a polished Hitman experience.

In addition, all of the locations & missions in this iteration of Hitman will be able to be played offline, without the need for a persistent internet connection.  If a player wants to participate in the scheduled live events, download any updates, or view things like the leaderboards, then they will need to connect to the internet.

One of the finer points of this release (given recent issues with some other publishers forcing extra charges on players), is that the game will be released for one price.  Square Enix has stated unequivocally that there will be no extra cost for any of the updates.  No hidden DLC costs and no micro-transactions.  The game will cost $60 USD (or the regional equivalent) on December 8^th, and that’s it.  All of the content that will be released throughout 2016 will be included in the initial price package.

I’m pretty excited to see how this game pans out, and it will definitely be adding it to my list of games to get.