Hitman isn’t early access or episodic, so what is it?

IO Interactive has released a new Q&A aimed at addressing confusion over its new Hitman game which was announced during E3 last month.

“We’re doing things a bit differently, as you may have read in our ‘Announcing HITMAN’ blog post. HITMAN will launch on PS4, Xbox One and PC on December 8th this year as a digital download. That’s when the experience will begin. And it’s really important to us that this is understood as a ‘beginning’,” explains the studio.

“What we release on December 8th is not the full game,” the Q&A adds. “It’s a sizeable chunk of it. Throughout 2016 we’ll release more locations and missions until the story arc is done and finished. All of that content is included in the $60 price.”

The specifics of exactly what content will be available on December 8 will be announced closer to release.

Releasing some content now and more down the line does sound a bit like the Early Access model, but IO says Hitman should not be considered early access.

“Early access can often mean something unfinished or unpolished. That’s simply not the approach we’re taking,” confirms the studio. “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. It will always be a polished Hitman experience.”

So does that make the game episodic? Well, no, but kind of a little, says IO.

“We think the word ‘episodic’ sets up the expectation that we will sell individual content drops for individual prices but that’s not something we’re planning to do,” says IO. “That said, there are some episodic elements to the story in the sense that it’s delivered in chunks over time, so experiencing the story will probably feel episodic. But there is also a ton of other content including live events, which have nothing to do with the story. We’ll also be improving and changing the game constantly whilst you’re playing it. Our ambition is to have a stream of content available from December 8th until the story arc is finished.

“The thing is, there isn’t really a term to describe what we’re doing. That’s why we’re calling it a ‘live’ experience because it feels like that’s what it is – something that lives, grows and evolves. This question was asked a lot at E3 and if anyone out there comes up with a brilliant term, please get in touch. Seriously.”

To make it clear IO states that there will be no paid-for DLC, you simply pay the $60 asking price and get all release and future content included in the price.

“There’s no micro-transactions or hidden costs in there. No extra paid DLC on top either. It’s one package, all-in for $60. We want that to be simple and clear and it was important for us to be up-front about that,” clarifies IO.

Source: IO