At this point, Hitman's model is so convoluted that we're struggling to think of where to begin with this article. For those out of the loop, the already confusingly named Hitman on PlayStation 4 will launch in an 'unfinished' state. However, the term 'unfinished', according to Square Enix, doesn't describe the game accurately - nor does the term 'early access'.
When you buy Hitman - which was recently delayed into March 2016 - you'll be buying a title that'll have content added to it as time goes on. New missions, locations, live events, and contracts will be provided on an unconfirmed basis, expanding the release beyond its original form.
From the very beginning, we've thought that this whole thing just sounds needlessly complex. Square Enix itself even had to come out and write a lengthy blog post about what the game actually was when people were left scratching their heads following the title's muted E3 2015 reveal. Heck, it's now revealed the infographic that we've slapped into this very article, which features instructions on 'how to buy Hitman'.
Now, following the stealth-'em-up's aforementioned delay into next year, the publisher has revealed that the game will actually be available in two separate packages. The first costs the full $60, and it grants you access to all of the additional, unreleased content that's planned for the future. The second offer, meanwhile, sits at $35 - but you only get the base, launch day release. If you pick the cheaper option, it means that you'll have to stump up another $30 to gain access to the promised future content if you're still interested by the time it rolls around.
So, as far as we can tell, Hitman is essentially 'Season Pass: The Game'. You can pay full whack and get everything - even though there are currently no in-depth details on what 'everything' is outside of the vague terminology used in the included picture, or you can pay less - at least initially - and then decide whether or not you want more when the time comes.
Whether this is a business move purely to keep people coming back for more, we can't say, but we're sure that we're not the only ones still wondering whether such a convoluted roadmap was necessary in the first place. You can let us know if you think that all of this is a good idea in the comments section below.
[source gameinformer.com]
Comments 21
I'm very excited by this game, because the bits I've seen have looked great. However, the rollout model is very convoluted, and is taking the attention away from the title itself, which is a shame.
I quite like the 'Games As a Service' model that so many titles are adopting these days, but I'm not sure releasing half a game and rolling the rest out is all that exciting in this instance. Much prefer how DriveClub did/is doing it.
While it perhaps a little convoluted, I'm not entirely sure why people have such a problem with the way this has been handled. Overall, what it boils down to is you can wait and buy all of the game when it's ready, or pay less early to play through the first half of the game once development on that is completed.
That half of the game will still be "finished", and allows people to pay less money and get a taster of the game to see how they like it. Buying the two halves separately costs the same as a regular full price PS4 game (when you convert it to GBP at least), so it's not like the money should be an issue for people.
Also, releasing in this fashion allows earlier delivery of content to market for those who are keen to have it, as well as allowing them to actively tweak the remainder of the campaign based on feedback, which should surely ultimately enable them to deliver a better experience.
It's ultimately not all that different to any other episodic games out there, it's just split out slightly differently.
Having to have instructions on how to buy a product can't be a good thing.
@SteveButler2210 This is it, though. Look at how big this article had to be. Look at how big your comment is. There's no getting away from the fact that it's unnecessarily complex. They can't just say 'here's a release date, buy our game', and to me, that's just daft.
@get2sammyb Same here, really excited to see how it compares to Blood Money but the fact that we need a poster to understand its release is kinda ridiculous. Don't get why they don't just release it in June as a complete thing
My problem with this kind of rollout is that we all have backlogs a dozen miles long at this point. So we'll get the first half, play it, and then move on to other titles. By the time the first new bit of content rolls out, people will already be heavily invested in the Next Big Thing. Let's say they finish that Thing and then they do jump onto the next clump of Hitman. They might even love it. Yay! Then they move on to the Next Next Big Thing. At some point it's possible that they'll fall off the title entirely, at 73% completion.
Surely this won't confuse and alienate customers... surely.
What a mess, the game itself looks amazing.
Looking at the release date I think I've worked it out. It comes out a week before Uncharted 4, so they've obviously thought we wouldn't have time to finish it in a week so we get half a game. Then when we're finished with Uncharted they'll release the rest of it so we can finish it off, genius.
Maybe it'll be like buying a half-price ticket for the new Hitman movie, giving you the option of whether to cough up the remainder to watch it through to the end; rather than stumbling out in protest after 30 mins.
Ugh, won't be going near this ever.
With this model of rollout I for the first time with hitman hope this game falls flat on it's face.
I really liked the past Hitman games but I'm going to wait on this and see how it goes, no need to support this kind of nonsense day one.
I think the reason for the strange rollout is the same reason a lot of companies are practically begging people to pre order games. It gives them an idea of sales figures and thus determines how much money they can spend developing the title. Maybe they feel after absolution the game might not sell that well and this way they can keep the development costs low and use the initial sales money to pay for the development of the rest of the content/game.
The game looks great, but why this? I can't see anyone paying for the cheaper option of just day one content. A more sensible approach could be to put the cheaper option on PS plus....get people intrigued. Kinda how a demo used to work.
Just give us the game....
Someone seriously needs to talk to Square's marketing. The ideas they've had about how to show their games is just silly.
I don't like how games are so dependent on downloaded content now. There are still some people that don't have internet access and this puts them out completely. I want to be able to buy a complete game on a disc, put it in my console and play it without needing an internet connection. I don't think that will ever happen again unfortunately.
So basically how destiny has ended up rolling out
Lets just call this the Wait a Year, or WaY model
Lets just call this the Wait a Year, or WaY model
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