Hitman to Be Fully Episodic, Collector's Edition Revealed

[LoneRanger]

IO Interactive and Square Enix have revealed that the new Hitman game will be an episodic release, and the game launching on March 11 will only have two missions.

IO Interactive is now in almost uncharted waters with their episodic content for the sixth Hitman game. As some of you have probably noticed, this seems like a reboot of the series, which is exactly one of the reasons the name is now simply Hitman, without any number or subtitle.

The first Hitman release in 2016 is set for March 11, and it will only bring two missions for users, Prologue and Paris. Don’t worry, they are not going to charge full price for this, $15 (€15), which seems fair, although we don’t know how long these missions really are. Each new episode will be priced at $10 (€10), and five of them have already been announced for Italy, Morocco, Thailand, US, and Japan.

This is where it gets really interesting. If you buy the first one with $15 (€15), and then each one as it’s launched, you’re going to pay $65 (€65). There is also a $50 (€50) upgrade pack that will give you access to all of the missions. Players can also purchase the entire game up front with $60 (€60).

New Hitman economic model is risky

Since this kind of model hasn’t been widely adopted (only Zen Pinball 2 is doing this with some success), it’s going to be interesting to see if it will be a success.

“Whether you purchase the complete game or buy each episode individually, we want to remind the community that there will be no micro transactions in HITMAN. If you prefer to wait we will also ship the complete season on a disc at the end of 2016,” developers wrote.

A Collector Edition will also be provided and it will include the game itself (the full game, as it is released), a 10” Agent 47 "Chessmaster" statue, a hardcover 60-page art book, curated by Art Director, Jonathan Rowe, and Agent 47’s iconic red tie and clip set. This edition will be available for pre-purchase soon from the Square Enix Store and will set you back $139.99 / €139.99 / £109.99.

It also gives players access to the Beta, which started on February 12. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think it’s a good business model and are you going to buy it? It’s worth mentioning that microtransactions won’t be used for Hitman.