Hitman 2015

Someone's been playing Hitman PRO and many other games on Steam very recently:

http://i.imgur.com/qCXjvzI.jpg

Dear Hitman fans,

We wanted to share this open letter with all of you out there eagerly awaiting more news about what’s happening next in the franchise.

At Io-Interactive right now, we are building the next AAA Hitman game for PC and next-gen consoles. It has our total focus and we wanted to take a moment to tell you a few things about it.

In the next game you will experience a globetrotting Agent 47 at the prime of his career – the apex predator stalking his prey across the world, with the support of his long-term handler Diana Burnwood and the whole of the ICA.

The game concentrates on the core Hitman fantasy of using a wide range of tools to take out a diverse group of targets across expansive, exotic locations around the world. We are building this game on the backbone of the Glacier 2 engine, using the best parts and what we have learnt through Hitman: Absolution and drawing inspiration from past titles like Contracts and Blood Money to fulfil the core Hitman fantasy. That means we’re packing in an extreme level of detail on the largest levels we have ever built for a Hitman game. We’ve adopted an open, non-linear level design approach to the game, ensuring the game will play out across huge, checkpoint-free, sandbox levels. Our aim is to create living, breathing and believable levels which will allow gamers to play around with the AI to create those unique moments every fan of the Hitman franchise loves.

Contracts Mode is back – you will be able to create and build challenges by experimenting with the large levels and possibilities within them. And of course, you can share them with the world and challenge your friends or foes to complete your hits. Your rules, your Contracts.

You will also be glad to hear that we have removed 47’s magic pockets. We believe that’s all we need to say about that subject.

As we get further into 2014, we will reveal more and get into much closer contact with all of you. There are so many things we have planned and we are extremely excited for the future of Hitman.

Thank you all for your dedication. We will share much, much more in the coming months.

The Io-Interactive Team
@IOInteractive

Absolution kan vara det bästa jag någonsin spelat så det ska bli spännande att se vad som kommer härnäst. Absolution var ju ingen försäljnings succé direkt så risken finns ju att 6an försöker sig på något helt annat.

SquareEnix
Join us on Twitch on Monday for a unique 3-day interactive experience from one of our Western studios. Don't miss it! http://t.co/tRqEBxSkS4

DavidAnfossi
At Copenhagen with my friends at IO. There is also a lot of people from #squareenix here. Important discussion happening now!!

It’s safe to say HITMAN is the biggest venture we’ve ever undertaken at Io-Interactive. Not just in terms of scope and ambition but also in terms of the size of the game world itself. The playable area and density of our locations goes beyond anything we’ve built before. We’re striving to create a series of living, breathing worlds in those locations and we get pretty obsessed about every detail that you’ll experience.

On top of that, we’re going for a new release model where we put out a good chunk of the game when it begins and then release the remaining locations over time. We want to make absolutely sure you all get the best possible experience when you join, so we’ve made the difficult decision to move the initial release date to March 2016. These few extra months will mean we can add more to the launch content of the game, more than we had originally planned, and then follow with a tighter frequency of updates, which ultimately will create a better game for everyone. And in the end, that’s what we’re all looking for.

To give you a sense of the scale when it comes to our various locations, we’ve compared our Paris Showstopper mission to the largest level in Hitman: Absolution. As you can see, lots of challenges, plenty of space to set up death traps, and a huge supply of targets for Contracts mode.

Moving a launch date is never an easy decision, we know it’s frustrating to have to wait a bit longer for the game, but we truly believe it will mean we can deliver a better launch and overall experience. We’ll share more details next week about the full release schedule and scope of HITMAN in general so keep a look out for that.

https://hitman.com/en-us/news/important-release-news#

Today we’re thrilled to share long-awaited details on our release plan for HITMAN. As most of you hopefully know by now, HITMAN will be a live game experience that delivers content over time, supported by live events.

HITMAN RELEASE DETAILS
On March 11th 2016, we will release the initial launch content, which contains three locations - Paris, Sapienza and Marrakesh - featuring six campaign missions. For Contracts mode, you’ve got a combined pool of around 800 targets to craft your devious Contracts from, which means we’re expecting fantastic things.

Following March, we will release one new sandbox location per month in April, May and June. Each location will come with additional missions, signature kills and more Contracts targets – and of course new disguises, weapons and ways of taking out your target. April takes you to Thailand, May will see you visiting the United States of America and June sends you across the globe to Japan.

In addition, the live content will start in March. This consists of our live, time-limited targets, weekly IOI developed Contracts and promoted content built by the very best of you out there. Because, let’s face it, millions of you played and created fantastic Contracts for Absolution and we’re betting you’ll do even better this time around with so many targets and such complex locations.

THE INTRO PACK
Since we announced HITMAN at E3, we’ve had a lot of feedback on what we’ve revealed about the release model. Full access to the world of assassination will cost you $59.99 (or regional equivalent). For that price, you’ll get everything - all the content we’re planning on releasing, access to all live events and a secured spot in the HITMAN Beta, which will be available on PlayStation 4 and PC only. No additional costs at any time.

Today, with the INTRO PACK, we’re also giving you an additional option to jump onboard with just the March content – at a lower price point, of course. The “HITMAN Intro Pack” will also be available on March 11 2016, and will be priced at $34.99 (or regional equivalent). It includes all of the launch content, plus all Live Events and Contracts for the locations released in March 2016. Nothing more, nothing less.

Then, if you want to access the rest of HITMAN, you have the option to upgrade your purchase to include all the remaining content (and at the same time get access to all subsequent live events and Contracts across all locations). This will cost you an additional $29.99 (or regional equivalent). The upgrade pack will be available for purchase once the game has launched in March.

That’s it! Head on over to the forums or get in touch via Twitter (@hitman) and let us know what you think.