That’s a massive strawman comparison if I’ve ever seen one.
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I thought I’d research this (with H2), and it’s interesting. By this point in the H2 lifecycle, there had been:
7x FC packs
10x Escalations
4x ETs
7x Challenge Packs
1x Sniper Assassin Map
1x New Map (New York)
1x Special Event
This doesn’t account for any legacy releases, but it was only 7 months in to the DLC lifecycle that things started to ramp up (Feb was literally just 1 Escalation).
In comparison, this is what we have for H3 so far (* now including Lust):
13x FC packs
17x Escalations (7 free + 6 deluxe + 4 7DS)
5x ET
0x Challenge Packs
2x Special Events
We are now 7 months in to the H3 DLC lifecycle and things do seem to be ramping up with the Dartmoor Garden Show. As many others have pointed out, we have also been in a pandemic for a year and we know that the team for H3 is comparatively smaller than H1 and H2 - as a coder who has worked remotely for a year; it is extremely tough and it does have an impact.
However, the biggest problem we have is that people are comparing a full, 2 year DLC cycle with an ongoing, 7-month-in DLC cycle and expecting them to match. Let’s just wait until we are 12-14 months in to the H3 cycle, see what we have and then re-assess how we feel about the DLC. IO might throw a curve-ball and give us something huge once 7DS is done and we’ll all be praising them again.
The Dartmoor Garden Show in my eyes is the first step towards more substantial content, and judging by what we have seen, it is almost a new map in its own right. Whilst it is an “escalation,” I’m holding out hope that they change the formula and give us something truly worthwhile that has high replayability.
I do believe IO listen to the community and I do think they will take good, constructive criticism onboard (we’ve seen how 7DS has improved since Greed). They will work with the team they have - whatever size that may be - to produce more substantial content and they will do the best they can for the community and the solid player-base that H3 has. One thing is for sure, they are fully committed to supporting Hitman 3 in some capacity for the foreseeable future.
Anyway, rant over - let’s look forward to Lust, and keep our fingers crossed that the Garden Show blows us all away! A little bit of faith goes a long way 
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a “no more roadmaps!” message is quite a curve-ball which I am literally scared of.
Only 10 escalations on the seventh month? But I was told that H2 stop upgrading in the late 2019, so there was a escalation bomb during the late half of 2019, as we now have way more escalations than that? It gives me some confidence…
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You forgot Hokkaido Snow Festival, that’s a Special Event for H2 that happened early on
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Doubt it.
The content we’re getting would’ve been planned in advance of launch before anyone knew how successful the game was going to be and how quickly it would become profitable. By the time they get what they had planned originally out the door, and then develop something new because of how well it did in January 2021 - they would be so far away from the window to strike while the iron is hot that it wouldn’t be worth it.
I didn’t go further than the 7th month, but that was 10 new escalations - they also used Legacy Escalations to pad out roadmaps as well.
Oh, I don’t remember seeing that on the roadmaps. I’ll add it in!
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Don’t know about that, as mentioned earlier Patient Zero DLC was a whole year after all of Hitman 1 was released. A GOTY release or Definitive Release is a good bump in attention for players who moved away from the core game.
Plus good way to advertise a potential Steam release.
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True, but it was also created because IO were desperate for money and were on the verge of having to shutdown after Squexit. It did well enough to keep the lights on, but they were still on very shaky ground for awhile after it launched so it wasn’t a huge smash hit in terms of sales.
And now that those days are behind IO, there’s no real incentive to spend time on something else if the payoff isn’t likely to be there.
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If it was enough to keep the lights on for abit then they can’t say no to making a small profit on the side when their next big games are still years off.
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Best bet for ambitious bonus missions is when H3 hits steam or when IO decides to sell the WOA trilogy in one pack.
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Or wait for Modders to up their game 
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I wonder if that is do-able given H1 was published under Square Enix and H2 was published under Warner Bros so they might have some stake on sales.
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I’ve just counted it and we have 34 new escalations in the whole H2 game, way more than 10 on the 7th month. So IOI would speed up in the late term? Let’s see…
To get back on Topic
Really looking forward to a nice sunny map on Dartmoor as on the 5 days of the year when England is sunny Dartmoor can look rather stunning so be good to see what is like in game, plus will feel like a take back to Hitman 1 in terms of setting. Wonder how populated the map will be, if it will have crowd mechanics.
Will also justify why all those windows are open in the manor. As always puzzled me why so many windows were open on what looks to be a cold overcast day.
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To be fair, I think they made it an Escalation, because the Target or Targets are suppose to be randomized, so it’d be hard to talk about it, so that’s just my theory.
Wonder how that will work-out per escalation level.
Will level 1 be in the Manor with 2 targets then Level 2 with the Garden with 4 targets and then the whole grounds with 5 targets?
I want to remind everyone that we have a leaks category to discuss information from hidden game files.
Join this group to gain access and be spoiled.
Or you people just wait a few hours. 
Including the upcoming ET @TheAtlanticTempest
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Will the manor even be accessible? Haven’t seen the IOI Insider… Would be a shame if it wasn’t. Anybody know this? Or is this considered a spoiler/leak?
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I think not much is known, neither as leaks.
If it is closed the map becomes smaller, that’d be bad. For contracts it might be interesting though to have a ring-layout map. 
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Ring-Layout would be quite interesting though Berlin Egg Hunt might of worked better for that idea as would have more different areas to navigate around. Where as Dartmoor, the grounds might be little more limited even with different garden layouts. Though with the manor open it would take a look more time and effort to add new routes and NPCs which might be beyond the scope IO set for the map.