Square Enix and IO Interactive have made the decision to turn Hitman into a fully episodic game, indicating that the publisher could be looking to release more of their AAA games in a similar fashion in the future.
The announcement that Hitman will be released in several instalments throughout 2016, an alteration of the company’s previous plan to release it in full on March 11th, follows Square’s previous revelation that this release plan would be employed by the long-awaited Final Fantasy VII Remake, too. As such, these two events surely mark a sign of things to come from the company further down the road.
The reaction to Square’s decision has been mostly negative. While some have stated that they like the idea of essentially being able to purchase an elongated demo in the form of the game’s first chapter, before deciding whether or not they will take the plunge on its future instalments, the majority have bemoaned that they’ll have to wait for up to 9 months (if Square sticks to its release plan) to complete the game in its entirety. However, it’s understandable why Square has adopted this tactic, if not completely agreeable.
Hitman is a series that waned in credibility following the underwhelming Absolution, and as such Hitman 2016 was always going to be a gamble. By releasing the game in chapters throughout the duration of the year, Square is obviously offsetting some of that risk, even if they have claimed that the decision was made so that they would “be able to respond much faster to feedback, analyse player behaviour and implement changes on a regular basis.” While this could well be the case, releasing games in episodic instalments has other benefits, too, that more than likely were the biggest driving factors in Square opting for the divisive format.
Firstly, it’s a good way of getting more people on board with the game who may not have took a gamble on it otherwise. At just $15 for the opening chapter (which includes the game’s prologue and its Paris stage) and then $10 for each chapter after that, with the full game able to be purchased for the standard $60, Hitman is priced very reasonably which may prove to be enticing to those who weren’t interested in the game in the first place. Whether or not these people stick around for future chapters is firmly reliant upon the quality of the game’s opening, but Square will view this as them at least getting their foot in the door with a series that many lost faith in following Absolution.
Then there’s the less optimistic option: Square might be doing this because the game isn’t actually ready yet. Hitman already suffered a previous delay, with it being moved back from its initial release date of December 8th, 2015, saying: “These few extra months will mean we can add more to the launch content of the game.” It’s certainly possible that the launch content doesn’t exist in an acceptable state right now, and rather than hitting the game with another delay, Square are instead choosing to bide IO Interactive some time by allowing them to release the game in separate chapters until the end of the year. This is obviously the less preferable reasoning behind their decision, but it’s still a possibility.
Whatever Square’s reasoning behind the decision, them opting to go down this route for two of their upcoming major releases indicates that this is a business model that they feel has legs outside of adventure games such as Telltale’s back catalogue. After already experiencing success with this format thanks to Dontnod Entertainment’s Life is Strange, which Square published, it’s difficult to blame them for trying it out again with a game that might benefit financially from being released in several separate instalments. Whether or not they employ this tactic in the future
Paul Tamburro is the Gaming Editor of CRAVE. Follow him on Twitter @PaulTamburro.
