Yesterday we wrote about how Square Enix cancelled all preorders on the PS4 for Hitman due to a change in the construction. We were hopeful that it’s going to benefit us and maybe even receive the entire game. We were completely wrong, in fact, the new pricing/release idea is, even more, pathetic in our opinion!

The episodic layout is going to stay, but the pricing will also take a different turn due to the new release schedule. According to IO Interactive, this will allow them to have „a truly episodic AAA game experience”. The Prologue/Paris missions will launch on March 11; the Italy level will come in April, the Morocco stage drops in May and the Thailand/US/Japan levels will follow by the end of 2016. Hitman will concentrate on the online component as the game will get weekly live events to get players back and play. Studio boss Hannes Seifert thinks they can create a living game and this episodic layout can make later levels high quality as well. (And we think they should just release the entire game at the end of 2016.)

Let’s talk about the dirty pricing: the Intro Pack has the Prologue/Paris levels for 15 bucks – you can add later levels as add-ons for ten a pop, or buy the Upgrade Pack for 50 dollars to get everything else later on. The full game can be purchased for 60 dollars/euros – this is a much more realistic pricing, but what if the game ends up sub-par? We’d just have thrown out all that money out the window.

PS4 owners are getting some extra: The Sarajevo Six will provide one exclusive contract per stage. Agent 47 will have to kill ex-members of a paramilitary unit called CICADA. The beta will launch on February 12 – you can get into the beta by pre-ordering either the Intro Pack or the full game.

Let’s also talk about the Collector’s Edition. That is funny: Square Enix announces a limited edition for an episodic game that isn’t even out yet. That’s not all: how about the fact that this version of Hitman will NOT have a physical copy of the game included? You will only get a digital download code! Remember, Life is Strange got a limited physical edition announced after the game ended, and that’s also a Square Enix game! But back to the Hitman Collector’s Edition, it will come with the following:
– The game’s digital download code in a collector’s box
– A 10-inch Agent 47 Chessmaster statue
– A red tie and clip set – you can wear Agent 47’s famous red tie
– A hardcover 60-page art book

To recap: the game got delayed by three months, only to stay with the episodic layout. The game gets a limited physical edition announced, only not to have the game in it in physical form? That makes no sense whatsoever… especially if you consider that there is a physical release planned!