Hitman is Now "A Fully Episodic AAA Game"

[Hairless Mammoth]

First, I hope they don't pull a Sonic 4 or Half Life 2/3. It would suck to for the game to be canceled partway through its release schedule, either because of poor reception of just one or two episodes leading to poor sales, or the episodes keep getting delayed to the point it's obvious most of the dev team is off doing something else.

Secondly, so what about a disc release? It's almost pointless to print discs for the first episodes, so if one does come out, it will likely be the long way away when all episodes are done. (The good news there is any extra DLC made to supplement the big releases could be on the disc.) Not ever console owner has the internet capabilities to be downloading a large chunk of a AAA game every month. (Not to mention console users that will not give up physical media.)

For me though, it doesn't matter much if all of the content does come out eventually. I started waiting for games to drop in price [footnote]Except for some Nintendo games. Many of those barely ever get price drops, and some get a limited production run, causing the prices to go up once everyone realizes it will be rare.[/footnote] and a good word of mouth to build around the game. It's just another waiting game, now with the bonus of "popcorn time" worthy shitstorms both now and if some episodes are canceled. I can't wait to see what happens to the FFVII remake either, considering how Square spends wayyy too much time on the eye candy anymore.

 

[distortedreality]

I'm actually not as annoyed by this as I thought I would be.....

As others have already said, Hitman is the kind of game that could benefit from this type of approach. The downside (for Square at least) is that I think more people will go down the wait and see route now than would have happened with a traditional release, I just hope that doesn't discourage them from actually completing the game.

Will be interesting how it pans out.

 

[kuolonen]

"A change to the release structure, sees Hitman become a truly episodic AAA game experience, with a major live component," a press release reads. "Where players will perform contract hits on powerful, high-profile targets in exotic locations around the world."

I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about a new hitman after they boarded 47 aboard the feels train and turned an turned a cold assassin into a care bear, but this is the last nail on the coffin. I suppose it is too much to ask for triple A business to understand that some games just don't need live components.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 10 years, then you should know that this is just another in the long line of shitty business moves designed to benefit publishers, not you. If this thing catches on the next step is what Square-Enix tried to do with Hitman before it went fully episodic, and that's to charge you for all of it before they even make the whole game. They'll do it by making you feel like you're missing out on a lot of shit unless you pre-order the whole "experience". They finally found a way to not only sell you unfinished products, but to advertise it as a fuckin' feature. And gamers, in their infinite stupidity and shortsightedness will gobble it up. People aren't nearly as outraged at this as they should be. It's like they didn't learn a god damn thing from DLC's, pre-orders, season passes and god knows what else. Jesus fuckin' Christ.

 

[Benpasko]

God dammit Squeenix. I was really excited for this one, but I hate episodic games so much. Guess I'll give it a pass.

 

[Kahani]

In a press release today, Square Enix and IO Interactive announced that...

...they haven't actually finished the game, but feel free to pay for the full thing even though you'll only be able to play some undefined small fraction of it. And sadly, plenty of people will be stupid enough to do exactly that.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

I thought they're reasoning of "The game would be too large" for the ff7 remake smelled a little fishy, considering they're doing the same thing with Hitman now, I'm pretty sure size was not the reason ultimately driving the decision to split a game into chunks.

I wonder how many more of their games are going to take on this model.
Kingdom Hearts 3, episode 1 coming up.

 

[Final7111]

Like the FF7 remake I've officially lost all interest in this game. It's sad that this once great company has decided to destroy what little faith its fans still had in it!

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I really hate you, Squeenix. There is nothing in this business model that is for the benefit of the consumer. Nothing. This is all for them. Assuming the game does get completed eventually; how many levels will there be? This is sounding like not only a shorter game, but a sneakier way of delaying the game without losing sales. And if there are a lot of levels, well they will profit immensely more from the impatient fans willing to hand over a total of $115 dollars just for getting ten levels each when they come out. This is all very shitty and i am not buying anything until it is all out on disc. Oh i see they didn't miss a trick with "additional content" between levels too. They have put this IP into the mincer and are selling us the scraps, telling us it's for our own good. Fuck you, squeenix. You have been falling down the shit-publisher ladder for a while now and you're pretty close to the bottom. If you dare mess with Deus Ex...

 

[Lightknight]

At first I wanted to scream at the devs, but thinking about it, if the game is split into missions anyway it might not completely ruin it, though I still don't see any advantage then having it released all at once.

Yeah, while I generally hate this trend, Hitman is one of the few series where the locations are so drastically different to where the episode thing might work. Unlike FF7 (f-square enix for that one).

I'll have to wait and see if it is done well, but they're basically forcing me to wait to see before any money changes hands and that isn't going to be good for them.

I actually love this franchise and thought it was dead a couple times. So I am happy to see it reappear.

 

[Callate]

Not to push against the tide, or anything, but this might actually be a good thing.

I'm not exactly a dedicated Hitman fan, mind you. But it reads rather like a note of confidence; Square-Enix thinks that if you play one episode, you'll be hooked enough to want to play more.

(Or they may be thinking that the dedicated fanbase will simply go for the $60 option as the whole pre-order nonsense seems to have trained so many of us to do. Still, at least there's an option.)

Honestly, it appears a slightly odd move from a financial standpoint. The incentive would appear to favor waiting until the whole thing is finished and word was out before scooping it up in the inevitable marked-down final or "game of the year" edition. But that's their problem. From where I stand, this is arguably a better offer than many of the games that want you to pay $50-$60 and an additional fee for in-game content or a "subscription pass". If they were charging $60 per episode, I'd understand getting angry. But as it stands, the consumer is being offered a fair price to try the thing out, and if it's awful, it's that much less money lost to find out. Sounds good to me.

Of course, it may lead to a drawn out and unpredictable release schedule; it may be cancelled before it's finished and leave the people who bought it complete in the lurch; it may underperform and have people and resources withdrawn, leading to a game that starts strong and peters out badly by the end. But we'll be given every opportunity to see if any of those things actually happens; why jump to conclusions?

 

[loa]

Oh dear, are they going to do that to all their upcoming games now?
How annoying.
I prefer complete stories that don't run the risk of being abandoned due to poor reception/mismanagement.
Not everyone can pull a walking dead and I don't think squeenix of all companies got what it takes.

 

[visiblenoise]

I can't imagine anyone besides their shareholders getting excited about this idea

 

[Creator002]

Life is Strange must've worked out well for them. I wonder if they'll realise that adventure games and action/stealth games are different and one probably won't work well with an episodic release.

 

[flarty]

To everyone who says episodic games don't work, tell that to telltale.

 

[Brian Tams]

Next they're going to say Kingdom Hearts III is going to be episodi-


*shatterpause*

Don't even think about it you little shit heads!

 

[Elfgore]

Square Enix is just really going for the goal of making themselves more despised than EA. First that augmented preorder bullshit, now two games being released in episodes for some poorly explained reason. Keep up the good work, Square! Everyone will hate you in no time now!

 

[Leg End]

To everyone who says episodic games don't work, tell that to telltale.

Except it actually works with what they do with it. This, not in the slightest.

Next they're going to say Kingdom Hearts III is going to be episodi-


*shatterpause*

Don't even think about it you little shit heads!

On that scale, I doubt it. FFXV is staying in one lump sum so I imagine they wouldn't be so stupid as to handle KH any differently.

Watch me be proven wrong and end up crying in the basement.

 

[Max_imus]

Goodness me, that is the most beatiful piece of bullcrap-marketing I have seen in a while. I mean, look at it. The utter lack of subtleness with which that Head of Studio just basically said "yeah, the suits want more money and we're fine with that, because building a complete game is HARD, man". Terrific.

Seriously though, the marketing guys for Squeenix and IO must know that this sounds dumb as hell. You gotta believe in the product to market it effectively. Apparently, they do not.