Season 2 of Hitman May be in the Works - IO Interactive Retain the Game's Rights

Hitman is one of the major successes which has brought Agent 47 in the spotlight in recent years. Though the game may be a fan favorite, Square Enix may not like it all that much as they didn’t include the game’s developers IO interactive as a “key studio” when moving forward. Square Enix also plans to …

[Araragifeels]

Hopefully IO keep Hitman and released season 2 in one package. Hopefully PlayStation buy the IO since Squares Enix are looking for buyers.

[_-EDMIX-_]

That seems a little unlikely but Sony has randomly purchased Studios before but rarely within established intellectual known property.

I could be wrong maybe some of our fact Checkers could correct me

[Araragifeels]

PlayStation possible purchased studio.
1. Quantic Dream
2. Blue Point
3. (Random studio depending on the ip and success)

[_-EDMIX-_]

@,ara-I definitely agree with Quantic dream's possibly being purchased by Sony.

I don't know about Bluepoint games unless Sony has other remaster that they have planned and they want to have an in-house team as opposed to Contracting.

[2pacalypsenow]

Sony should buy IO, and give us a Freedom Fighters sequel. If IO has the rights to it.

[-Foxtrot]

Does anybody really want Season 2...from what I've seen most want a full on, complete packaged from the get go standard Hitman game

We either get that or their financial disappointments will continue with this

[ocelot07]

Am ok the way the first season ended up once it was fully released. If you go to a store now and pick up the full package now. You will get a full on enjoyable Hitman game. The issue was waiting for it to become complete. Having to wait a month to play the next mission was annoying.

Next Hitman game I hope is just a full game day one. If they must do episodes just save them for DLC.

[andrewsquall]

You mean 6 levels? Yeah "full package", whatever you want to believe man.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I agree I actually thought it's released episodically made a lot of sense but clearly it could have been executed slightly better.

The people who want to try out the series get to play 1 episode of a game that is very much complete so they could see how they feel about it and if they want to continue to purchase each part they're free to do so and the people that want a complete package could simply just wait until it's release date like they would have done for any other game anyway.

This ensures that every single segment of the game is actually worthy of an individual price as opposed to spending $60 on a game and you have these questionable boring segments.

I like to know that every single segment individually is indeed worth its price.

It's actually a part of this controversy that most people have not really discussed.

We in gaming have no problem handing over $60 for a game in its completion regardless of the areas in those games that might be questionable don't get me started on that weird Corridor area in Final Fantasy 15 😂😂😂

I'm okay with either direction that the next Hitman takes.

If it releases as a day one complete-game I'll watch the reviews and make my decision.

If it releases through episodes I'll play the first episode to see how I feel and then make my decision when it releases on disc.

[arkard]

I'm fine with season 2 and going forward with the Episodic formula. Worked fine for me

[BLAKHOODe]

i thought the season pass worked out for the better overall experience. It gave the team time to knock out any kinks and improve the game before releasing more episodes. It also gave me a reason to keep going back to playing Hitman, as does it's elusive targets. So, I'd be fine with an episodic season 2, like season 1, but if it happens, I'll be sure to buy the season pass instead of each episode individually next time.

[-Foxtrot]

Yeah but by the time they slow dripped the episodes most people had moved onto better games releasing in those months. I even know people who stupidly bought the season pass and still haven't been on the rest of the levels because of other games.

It's a terrible idea that shouldn't be a standard for games

[BLAKHOODe]

@-Foxtrot, @andrewquall, @DigitalRaptor

The thing about Hitman, tho, is that there are so many ways to accomplish your mission. This is what has always attracted me to the game. Episodes gave me more reason to stick with each level an extended amount of time, discovering new ways to complete them without the distraction of another level. I guess it just depends on the kind of player you are, but I feel like I got more out of Hitman this time around for this reason.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I agree I think that's what lots of people haven't been able to take away from this and I believe that's probably the real story behind this

Not only does releasing the game episodically allow for developers to continue to work on the game and make improvements based on life player feedback it also ensures that each segment of the actual final product is even really worth its actual price.

To the people who don't understand this or don't want this this way please understand if you want to buy it as a final game on disc it's always going to release that way anyway ,but this way you actually get a product that a bunch of gamers have been able to help make better as well as in sure if segment is really worth the price.

The people who want games completed on disk are not being harmed by this method in fact I would argue it's helping the final product anyway.

@fox-that's irrelevant and that's based on individual at the end of the day your attention span has nothing to actually do with the developer of the game in the first place.

If you don't want to play that way as most people may not want to nothing stopping you from just waiting for the disc based version...

Why would an option be terrible? Let's say you wait for the final version and you don't like it that's not really any different than any other game release in fact it would be better for you because you get to see each segment to see if you even want the final version in the first place as opposed to paying blind $60 for an unproven product.

I'm sorry but all I've seen from the majority of your post regarding this subject have been pure ignorance you haven't even tried to see how this could work as an option.

You're simply only narrow-mindedly focused on yourself in terms of what you want.

Dear God even I didn't purchase all the episodes of this game and even I could understand and see the significance of this being an option for the consumers that want it do you think I rent my games? I barely even buy digital but that does not mean I fail to see its relevance to other people.

Seriously stop only thinking about yourself and start expanding your mind to think about other users in terms of this situation because you have this weird habit of interjecting your own feelings into something that's not relevant to specific individual.

That's like saying you don't think game rentals should be standard for games cuz you don't play rentals or you don't think digital releases should be standard for games because you don't play digital.

Put it this way Fox if you could buy the game the way you intend to play it exactly what's the problem? Why on Earth are you so fixated on how other people want to play their games?

Buddy if somebody wants to play their game subscription-based or episodically or rent their games or digital etc whatever I actually really don't care that's up to them but I'm okay with the option for people that want it.

I buy my games disc base 95% of the time on disc, that doesn't mean I ignorantly disregard other people's options for playing games.

This option doesn't hurt you in the slightest , I would argue it helps Someone Like You who's going to play the final version to have an entire Community assist in making it Superior than what it would have been being developed isolated.

[andrewsquall]

I'm with you Fox. I don't want it. I didn't want a slow drip feed of "Hitman: The Entire First Six Levels" either. I just want a full proper Hitman game with lots of different levels and variety like the old days. Fat chance of that happening anytime soo though :(
This series has gone the way of FF and RE i.e. dead to me.

[DigitalRaptor]

I think it was a nice experiment and it was well-received, but I chose to get the disc at the end.

I would prefer that to be honest.

[_-EDMIX-_]

... that actually already released on disk.

How the game is actually distributed before it's released is actually quite irrelevant ,it actually still released on disk.

I mean you have to consider if Hitman released literally a couple months ago on disc , why would a year ago it releasing episodically stop somebody from buying it on the disk of this year?

How is that even relevant to the user that wants the complete package?

I mean jokingly and hypothetically speaking if you played one of these games a 100 years from now on a single disc , do you seriously care how it was originally distributed?

[XXanderXX]

MS should look into buying IO interactive along with it's IPs from Enix . Hitman on Unreal engine 4 and on Scorpio would be awesome

[andrewsquall]

Except the original Xbone would hold it back from being anything insanely advanced anyway so why is it coming to Scorpio a deal breaker for you?
And Hitman on Unreal engine??? Get the hell out of here, some fan you are. The whole reason Hitman has been stunning this past 17 years is because IO always built the game from the ground up on their own engine. Do you WANT corpses to disappear after 10 seconds of sitting on the map or some other restraints the developers can't have any power over?

And how long do you think Microsoft would keep IO going as a developer when IO tell them that they don't want to make it an online game first, riddled with microtransactions and want to focus on it being a single player experience first?

[XXanderXX]

Won't know till a deal is struck on how they would run it , by the time a game is full developed Xbo one will have probably been put out to pasture leaving Xbox one S and Scorpio .

[2pacalypsenow]

So they can run it to the ground like they did with Rare?

[XXanderXX]

Rare was shit before MS bought them why u think Nintendo did not heasetate to sell them . As for MS buying rare was due to the nice pile of IP . Plus with MS buying them gaurentees me buying a copy of their game any other way and it's a pass unless they remain independent.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Lol

Now I have no problem criticizing Microsoft but to be honest I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt if they are trying to change their ways and they do by Hitman so let your property let's hope that they give those developers a little bit more freedom so that way they could openly Blossom and give them some new intellectual properties

I don't disagree with you that Microsoft has a huge history of doing this but I also don't really think it's that fair to sort of bash them on a hypothetical I think they at least deserve some what of the benefit of the doubt if they're trying to change for the better.

@XX-NO IT WASN'T. Rare was one of the best teams in gaming when Microsoft purchase them, they came off of an absolutely ridiculous generation with the N64.

Microsoft never release date Conker's Bad Fur Day 2, in fact Microsoft neglected to strike while the iron was hot on lots of there very great properties.

I'm sorry but Rare only continued to loose steam the instant they were purchased by Microsoft and I actually put a lot of that blame on Microsoft as the publisher because they very much as soon as they purchase them could have had that team working on properties that they were known to do that produced amazing results...

I'm sorry but a Conker's Bad Fur Day 2 as a Triple-A reveal for the 360 I believe would have sold really well and help establish another huge property for Microsoft.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I actually agree with you

this is Microsoft's opportunity to add an excellent team to their Arsenal as they really need to build their first party.

[arkard]

Here is the reality. IF IO are retaining the rights and don't have a major publisher behind them, they will most likely be hurting financially and have no choice but to release hitman as an episodic game. If that tanks IO has a very real possibility of going under. We could then be looking at IO being bought by EA or Activision. And do you think EA or Activision are going to give us anything that resembles a Hitman Blood Money? We will be lucky if it even resembles Absolution at that point. Just some thoughts to chew on.

[quent]

They will probably be looking into making a deal with Paradox for publishing, they're looking to be a strong up and coming publisher and already have bunch of interesting developers onboard with them

[Eiffel]

I've never been one big for remasters, but a remaster of Blood Money would probably help them at this point, and if anything help them further reevaluate why they peaked with that entry.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Well that's nice of Square Enix to let them take the property with them considering they probably were not going to do anything with it.

I hope the team is able to get back on their feet because even though I only purchased the first episode of Hitman I actually really liked it and might buy the disc based version of the whole thing.

[TheOttomatic91]

I hope this is true but if so which publisher would take them I personally wouldn't mind seeing THQ Nordic do it since they did revive the Darksiders franchise.