Home Gaming New Hitman isn’t an episodic game, it’s a “platform”

New Hitman isn’t an episodic game, it’s a “platform”

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Hitman2016

According to previews of IO Interactive’s new episodic Hitman game, it’s great – both modernising the alopecic agent 47 and taking him back to his roots.

Only, it’s not an episodic game. According to Hans Seifert, studio head at Hitman developer IO Interactive – and continuing the weird and confused marketing message – the impending Hitman is a platform.

“We want to create a platform for Hitman and I know that that’s controversial,” Seifert said to Ars Technica. “A lot of people have said: ‘why don’t you wait to ship the game?’ My answer to that is that we are shipping the game at the end of the season. So, if you’re a traditional player, you can buy it on a disc at the end of 2016, if that’s what you want. No one is stopping you doing that, but why should the people that want to come on the journey with us have to wait for all that time to pass?

Whenever we ship a game we think it’s the best possible Hitman game we could have done. Of course, that’s the same this time: we think it’s the best possible Hitman game we can right now. But, you know what? That’s not always true. There are sometimes things that you only realise could be better when you observe people playing, and we can make those improvements now because of this episodic structure.”

While that may be buzzword laden marketing hyperbole, by all accounts that’s exactly what IO is delivering.

“New Hitman takes the best of both the classic and Absolution-era games to create the best-playing title in the series yet,” says Videogamer in their preview. A sentiment that seems to be shared by just about everybody who’s played it thus far.

There’s a closed beta for Hitman this weekend, with the first episode coming on March 11.

Last Updated: February 11, 2016

No Comments

  1. Alien Emperor Trevor

    February 11, 2016 at 08:11

    I don’t want to go on a bloody journey with you – the way you’re spinning it’s probably a circular one anyway. It’s only a game, not a life-altering experience.

    Reply

    • Umar

      February 11, 2016 at 08:12

      LOL I was thinking the same thing…Sounds like they’re inviting people to join a cult.

      Reply

      • Greylingad[CNFRMD]

        February 11, 2016 at 08:23

        HAHAHA!!! Now that you mention it, he does seem a little like a televangalist…

        Reply

  2. Umar

    February 11, 2016 at 08:11

    • Hammersteyn

      February 11, 2016 at 08:15

      Was thinking the same. I’ll meet mister Seifert Beeblebrox at Mordor

      Reply

      • Umar

        February 11, 2016 at 08:18

        Yeah, this guy is spinning a major fairy tale.

        Reply

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          February 11, 2016 at 08:27

          Maybe it has a deep, meaningful story that fans can speculate endlessly about online between episodic releases?

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            February 11, 2016 at 08:36

            Wow, not letting go are you?

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            February 11, 2016 at 08:46

            Last one, I promise. 😀

          • Hammersteyn

            February 11, 2016 at 08:49

            lol only saw the gif after refreshing the page

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            February 11, 2016 at 10:37

            Okay I know I promised, but this is hilariously good timing:

            http://kotaku.com/namco-is-offering-10-000-to-anyone-who-can-actually-ex-1758274448

          • Hammersteyn

            February 11, 2016 at 11:04

            The universe turns in your favour XD XD XD

  3. Captain JJ 'saurus

    February 11, 2016 at 08:12

    I have way too many games I still need to play.
    Seriously.
    I still need to get to Absolution.
    I still need to play Xcom Enemy Unknown
    How do people keep up with games?

    Reply

    • Kromas untamed

      February 11, 2016 at 08:22

      Quit your job.

      Or like me just selectively stop playing open world/mmo/survival games for a couple of weeks.
      And once you’ve done that please tell me how. 🙂

      Reply

      • Captain JJ 'saurus

        February 11, 2016 at 08:27

        Quit playing survival games?
        Listen to yourself man!

        Reply

        • Ottokie

          February 11, 2016 at 08:31

          The survival and openworld genre have really grown over the last 2 years. I miss playing ARK these days 🙁

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            February 11, 2016 at 08:35

            I find open world survival games so boring.

            “Why am I playing this? What am I supposed to be doing – just walking around trying not to die? That’s what I do every day. What is life even?”

          • Ottokie

            February 11, 2016 at 08:35

            Try it with other “people” 😛

          • Captain JJ 'saurus

            February 11, 2016 at 08:39

            Exactly 😀

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            February 11, 2016 at 08:47

            But that would just make the game easier. I wouldn’t have to struggle to find food.

          • Captain JJ 'saurus

            February 11, 2016 at 08:38

            You have clearly not yet played ARK or The Forest.

          • Hammersteyn

            February 11, 2016 at 08:35

            Has the ARK sailed?

          • Captain JJ 'saurus

            February 11, 2016 at 08:38

            My friends all just want to play on public servers…which is crazy because each time you log back in again the ARKholes have completely destroyed everything you owned.

        • Kromas untamed

          February 11, 2016 at 08:47

          I did say if you succeed in doing so tell me how. 🙂

          Last night alone I logged into WoW to try and get my offhand Warglaive of Azzinoth then proceeded to Ark to feed my dinos and do some admin stuff and only then I logged into X-Com 2.

          Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      February 11, 2016 at 08:23

      I chose not to choose life

      Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      February 11, 2016 at 08:26

      People can’t even keep up with the Kardashians, and they’re not exactly deep.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        February 11, 2016 at 08:27

        I heard they modeled Gargantuan in Interstellar after Kim’s ass

        Reply

        • Captain JJ 'saurus

          February 11, 2016 at 08:28

          XD

          Reply

        • Greylingad[CNFRMD]

          February 11, 2016 at 08:37

          HA!! Why, because it attracted Kanye?

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            February 11, 2016 at 08:40

            That and because it pulls in objects of great density(dense people) and makes and hour feel like seven years when you watch the putrid exhibition of humanity they portray. Also because her ass is bigger than that black hole.

          • Greylingad[CNFRMD]

            February 11, 2016 at 08:50

            Hehehe, exactly! Unfortunately, stupid people are being made famous…Reminds me of a rather specific feminist, something about a frequency, especially when some arguments are blown up to the size of that Supernova… Which reminds me….

      • Captain JJ 'saurus

        February 11, 2016 at 08:28

        Yea. That’s like a rock trying to keep up with a slightly bigger rock.

        Reply

  4. Kromas untamed

    February 11, 2016 at 08:21

    As I read this article my mind constantly switched to “Are they trying to spin Early Access Episodic game into something cool?”

    Yes. Yes they are.

    Reply

    • Captain JJ 'saurus

      February 11, 2016 at 08:29

      There is zero reason for an established dev to use early access. That defies the whole point of it.

      Reply

      • Kromas untamed

        February 11, 2016 at 08:46

        Try telling that to Ubisoft and EA.

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          February 11, 2016 at 08:47

          I did but they dismissed me as being logical

          Reply

        • Captain JJ 'saurus

          February 11, 2016 at 08:48

          Screw EA. Since their games aren’t on Steam anymore the only games of their’s I’ve gotten were the free ones. And it’s not because they’re not on Steam, it’s just because nothing they’ve released recently have been even slightly interesting.

          Reply

          • Kromas untamed

            February 11, 2016 at 08:52

            Well I am buying Mirrors Edge and Mass Effect. The former because I am one of the few peeps who really enjoyed it and the latter because. #MassEffect.

          • Captain JJ 'saurus

            February 11, 2016 at 08:54

            The first Mirror’s Edge kept me busy for about two hours before boring me. The autosave function was also terribly implemented, forcing you to re-do immense sections if you fail somewhere in between.
            I haven’t yet played ME3, and although I really enjoyed ME2 I didn’t seem to love it as much as everyone else.

          • Kromas untamed

            February 11, 2016 at 08:56

            To each his own but you better finish ME3 soon because I will go all Taken on your ass! 🙂

          • Captain JJ 'saurus

            February 11, 2016 at 08:58

            Yea. I need to still get ME3. Luckily it’s cheap…and I do want to play it. So will get there.

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            February 11, 2016 at 09:18

            ME3 just wasn’t as good as ME2. Sorry fans, it’s true.

          • miaau

            February 11, 2016 at 09:44

            that is true. But that does not make ME3 a bad game at all, just not as good as one of the best ever made.

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            February 11, 2016 at 10:30

            No it wasn’t bad, but as the final act of a trilogy that was building up to something amazing it fell a bit flat. And that was before we got to the controversial ending.

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            February 11, 2016 at 09:59

            Seriously kids, listen to Trevor… ME3 was crap, and Bioware knows it.

          • Captain JJ 'saurus

            February 11, 2016 at 11:34

            This is a must then…
            http://i.imgur.com/x0NLrQJ.gifv

          • Hammersteyn

            February 11, 2016 at 09:01

            Same here, either second hand or on a dirt cheap sale.

          • Kromas untamed

            February 11, 2016 at 09:03

            Mass Effect will be a brand new shiny CE pre-order and if I am lucky enough the R10k special edition that based on the Dragon Age one should be spectacular. Mirror’s Edge ill probs just pre-order on Origin.

          • Hammersteyn

            February 11, 2016 at 09:08

            R10k seems about right seeing how well the rand is doing. By the time the game is out it might be around there.

          • Kromas untamed

            February 11, 2016 at 09:24

            Well the Dragon Age one was R8k.

  5. Hammersteyn

    February 11, 2016 at 08:25

    Preorders must be low or people are disinterested. I hate episodic media. Be it TV or games. I’ll binge play the whole season 1 of Hitman thank you

    Reply

  6. Hammersteyn

    February 11, 2016 at 08:26

    “So, if you’re a traditional player, you can buy it on a disc at the end of 2016” #FoLyfYo

    Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      February 11, 2016 at 09:58

      I’ll be waiting for it… in a bargain bin near me…

      Reply

  7. The Sten

    February 11, 2016 at 08:32

    “So, if you’re a traditional player, you can buy it on a disc at the end of 2016, if that’s what you want”

    Your train would have been long gone by then brah. Bottom of the steam sales list for you…

    Reply

  8. miaau

    February 11, 2016 at 09:36

    So, it is a platform that content can loaded onto as time goes by. Cool concept. Wonder why this has not caught on before. Sort of like a game engine that can interpret the actual game content within a framework.

    Again, need more than strong Tea

    Reply

  9. Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

    February 11, 2016 at 09:55

    The Suck is great with this one!

    Reply

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