Economics of Hitman games in the modern day

Hitman: World of Assassination
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Brushing away the eclectic use of insults towards IOI while at the same time attempting to bring this back on-topic, the perception of 7DS is almost polarising to the point I have no idea if all of the sins would be beneficial for purchase once all DLC is available. I haven’t meet a single person who is a fan of Hitman irl, and yet my entire perception of 7DS is people feel disgusted at how it wasn’t included in the deluxe edition, at most part even uninstalling or demanding a refund.

For anyone of interest about how video game business works, it generally follows similar to that of going to a store, asking what their products are/if they’re in stock and then deciding if they want to purchase or not. If there is a product offered by a company, then you may either choose to buy it or not.

Of course in true internet fashion people have a hard time distinguishing basic civil discourse and a product meeting forthright appeal, which is why we’re at a 200+ topic page complaining about how IOI has apparently mistreated their DLC by being greedy.

I think video games have become too marketable for both developers and customers to be happy about products. They’ve either become too expensive to buy so they resort to pirating it or recite that 7DS is bad on arrival or a game has had too much crunch time for development to make gameplay cohesive. I only mention this here because while the aforementioned factors checks out, the biggest thing I’ve observed is large/popular games always tend to be a let down by many, with indie games being a safer alternative for a flourished product, therefore making the business model for video games redundant for marketability. I haven’t seen any proper evidence of this so please feel free to correct me.

My personal experience of 7DS was the sloth escalation is the only escalation I disliked, with the others being somewhat fine. Different people are going to have different experiences so really a stronger point to raise is whenever their experience was good for them than to complain about how it wasn’t included in the deluxe edition. Like I alluded above either you purchase it or you don’t, and depending on your research into the DLC is up to your own discretion.

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I was just wondering, if H3 is the final bit to the WOA and thus finalising the vision ioi had years ago, it should also be the point where they have the most playing and paying customers. Unless im mistaken i think they have steadily built the playerbase up.

So wouldnt it be a good strategy to release bigger dlc for more money. Now they have all the eyes on them and have an established product. If this is the high point of having an audience for a game they should pump out dlc until the fans lose interest, no?

I mean not in an overkill way. But having a steady flow of big paid content until the interest dies. Until it not generates enough money anymore.

They wont know yet if their future projects will be as successful as Hitman is now thus creating a bit of uncertainty of future cashflow.

I dont know what everybody else thinks but Hitman is my main game. A game which i happily spend money on. Which is not the case for other games.

So why not take advantage now keep the content rolling until the sales fade?

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I’m also a bit confused as to why they didn’t immediately go for new bonus missions as paid post-launch content, since that’s well-known to be the most popular content.

But, considering what we’ve got right now, I can only imagine that the team working on H3 isn’t big enough to coordinate and create a full bonus mission in a preferable amount of time. Just small bits of DLC items and some ‘premium Escalations’.

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No doubt, the post launch H3 team seems to be rather small. But why not keep it bigger until the interest in H3 content dies down. Im not talking from a do-it-because-i-want-it perspective but rather i think it would make sense for them financially.

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It’s very normal that teams shrink during the later stages of development. Moving on to new projects, which IO got plenty of in the pipeline.

Keeping a large team post launch is unnecessary and rather expensive, especially if they wrapped up their area of expertise.

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Hitman GOTY upgrade: 20 euros
new suits: 3 (clown,cowboy,raven)
new escalations: 3
new unique items: 2 (striker, sieger 300 ghost)
new reskinned items: 1 (a new bat)
reskinned levels: 4 (the pz campaign)
new levels: 0
new snipermaps: 0

Hitman 2 Season Pass: 40 euros
new suits: 6 (midnight black,winter sports,smart casual,new yorker, haven, buccaneer )
new escalations: 2
new unique items: 7 ( ica flash phone, the gold bar, ica remote flash device, bartoli sawed off, remote emetic gas device, sieker 1, black almonds dagger)
new reskinned items: 7 ( piton, snowball, ica19 black lilly, ica earbuds, jarls pirate saber, jaeger 7 tuatara , druzhina 34 arctic)
reskinned levels: 4 (special assignments)
new levels: 2 (bank and haven)
new sniper maps: 2 (hantu port and siberia)

Hitman 3 deluxe edition (in-game content only): 30 euros
new suits: 6 (black dragon, hunting attire, devils own, straitjacket,guru,white shadow)
new escalations: 6
new unique items: 1 (gurus emetic grenade* its unique due to technically having a larger range than the original emetic grenade )
new reskinned items: 11 (golden smg, golden briefcase,chinese briefcase,golden dragon, hunting shotgun deluxe,hunting briefcase,white katana,sieger 300 white,gurus emetic pen syringe,straitjacket belt, taunton dart gun)
reskinned levels: 0
new levels: 0
new snipermaps:0

Hitman 3 seven deadly sins as of today: 30 euros for the entire package, 5 euro per sin
new suits: 5 (7 once all is finished because every sin gets one suit)(rapacious suit, narcissus suit,lotaphage suit,scarlet suit,prophligacy suit)
new escalations: 5
new unique items: 4 (devils cane, snail mine, blinding crossbow,bubble queen)
new reskinned items: 6 (greedy little coin, proud swashbuckler, the majestic, slapdash smg, serpents bite,maximalist shotgun)
reskinned levels: 0
new levels: 0
new snipermaps: 0

not sure where i would put this, but this is an objective list of every dlc in hitman, what it includes and what it costs. when i put the dlcs in perspective like this. i think that the sins, though slightly overpriced imo, are alot more fairly priced then most people claim.

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Great list, just want to make one correction: The Hitman 2 Season Pass comes with 2 new escalations, one in New York and one in Haven, plus it also comes with The Buccaneer Suit for doing The Bartholomew Hornswoggle.

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technically those arent included in the dlc, but locked behind the dlc. they are free content that came after especially for bank and haven

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I suppose this is just semantics but if you have bonus content that is later added to paid DLC at no extra cost, then it’s only “free content” from the perspective of those who had already purchased the Expansion Pass before the Escalations were announced/released.

For everyone else, these Escalations become a feature of the DLC package. They factor into the overall offering of the DLC and, even in a small way, might influence an individual’s purchasing decision. As such, it seems legitimate to consider bonus content locked behind a paywall to be a part of that paid DLC.

By stating that the Hitman 2 Season Pass comes with “zero” new Escalations, you are implying that The Bartholomew Hornswoggle & The Dalton Dissection are instead part of the base game. This is misleading. It might seem like splitting hairs, but I feel it’s highly relevant to the comparisons in your list.

The Bartholomew Hornswoggle, in particular, is one of the clearest precursors to H3’s premium Escalations because it experiments with game mechanics and comes with a themed suit reward. It is directly comparable with H3’s premium Escalations and surely worthy of recognition in the list.

Also, for the sake of clarity & consistency, the sections for H2016 & H3 really need fields for “New levels: 0” and “New sniper maps: 0” in the same way you currently have “New escalations: 0” in the H2 section.

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Thats a pretty a good reason yea, ill clean the list up and add those hitman 2 escalations

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This list is interesting given the amount of criticism that the 7 Deadly Sins DLC got (and gets) based on its content and pricing. It will only get more worthy the cost I assume as the rest of the Sins get added too as I assume that the final tally will include 7 escalations, 7 suits (which you did say) and additional new items and reskinned ones than the 3/5 you listed.
I do wonder if there is a justification in saying that there are no reskinned levels in the sins content. If the Special Assignment in Whittleton Creek is a “reskinned level” for having changed the house a bit, then the Sloth escalation is a reskinned level of Dartmoor for the same reason, I’d think. It’s an escalation, yes, and not playable as a standalone mission, but the level is definitively different than its original version. Same for Lust (Berlin). Pride and Greed are essentially the same, I’d say though with only minor cosmetic changes.

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Hitman GOTY upgrade: 20 euros
new suits: 3 (clown,cowboy,raven)
new escalations: 3
new unique items: 2 (striker, sieger 300 ghost)
new reskinned items: 1 (a new bat)
reskinned levels: 4 (the pz campaign)
new levels: 0
new snipermaps: 0

Hitman 2 Season Pass: 40 euros
new suits: 6 (midnight black,winter sports,smart casual,new yorker, haven, buccaneer )
new escalations: 2
new unique items: 9 ( ica flash phone, the gold bar, ica remote flash device, bartoli sawed off, remote emetic gas device, sieker 1, black almonds dagger, jaeger 7 tuatara, druzhina 34 arctic)
new reskinned items: 5 ( piton, snowball, ica19 black lilly, ica earbuds, jarls pirate saber)
reskinned levels: 4 (special assignments)
new levels: 2 (bank and haven)
new sniper maps: 2 (hantu port and siberia)

Hitman 3 deluxe edition (in-game content only): 30 euros
new suits: 6 (black dragon, hunting attire, devils own, straitjacket,guru,white shadow)
new escalations: 6
new unique items: 1 (gurus emetic grenade* its unique due to technically having a larger range than the original emetic grenade )
new reskinned items: 11 (golden smg, golden briefcase,chinese briefcase,golden dragon, hunting shotgun deluxe,hunting briefcase,white katana,sieger 300 white,gurus emetic pen syringe,straitjacket belt, taunton dart gun)
reskinned levels: 0
new levels: 0
new snipermaps:0

Hitman 3 seven deadly sins: 30 euros for the entire package, 5 euro per sin
new suits: 7 (rapacious suit, narcissus suit,lotaphage suit,scarlet suit,prophligacy suit, odium suit, temper suit)
new escalations: 7
new unique items: 8 (devils cane, snail mine, serpents tongue,serpents bite,bubble queen, jaeger 7 green eye, shashka beast, roar flash grenade)
new reskinned items: 6 (greedy little coin, proud swashbuckler, the majestic, slapdash smg,maximalist shotgun, cat’s claw)
reskinned levels: 0
new levels: 0
new snipermaps: 0

With wrath being out this is the final objective price comparison between all dlcs

Unique item faq for 7ds:
Serpents bite is unique due to the larger explosion radius and ability for explosion to go through walls
Jaeger 7 green eye is unique due to it holding a combination of perks not seen on any other sniper rifle
Shashka beast is unique due to having 60 rounds instead of 30

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I think I may have made this point before, but why aren’t you considering Wrath Dartmoor (among others) a reskinned level? The time of day is different, decor is sufficiently different, population completely changed, etc. I would think that would qualify.

Something like Greed I could admit is barely changed with nothing more than a big pile of gold coins and a frog on the lowest level. Dartmoor in Sloth and Wrath and Berlin in Lust feel like more work went into the changes though.

Just curious what the criteria is to call a level reskinned or not?

Edit: when I wrote “I think I may have made this point before”…I probably should have bothered to scroll up to the post immediately prior to what @Khakiasp posted… dumb.

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To be fair i didn’t answer you back then, so ill answer it now. Out of all the sin escalations the only one i may consider a reskinned level is wrath, due to it having major changes that affect the level itself, unlike the minor changes sloth,lust and envy added. Even then it could also be reasoned that those escalations could also be considered reskins.

The reason i don’t put any 7 deadly sin as a reskinned level is the fact that theyre a new escalation first and foremost. theyre also marketed as escalations so i won’t classify them as reskinned levels.

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Fair enough. I can understand that distinction and it makes sense. Otherwise you’d be double counting them.

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Don’t forget the snail!

FWIW, I don’t think the 7DS was worth the time or cash. Lust was good but that’s about it for me.

Unless they tweak Wrath and allow a loadout or double loadout, it’s still a disappointment to me.

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Ahhh, I see the full content of 7 Deadly Sins is out. As mentioned, what we only could guesstimate back in March has now been shown and we can more accurately discuss. So I would wait until we got the facts.

What did I say?

Let’s take a look at what it was:

Well look at that. Surprise, surprise.

Can @Khakiasp or someone explain to me what it means by “unique”? As in they have a unique feature (the knife with poison for example). Or is it as in it’s “Unique” because it just looks different, and just actually a reskin? From the wiki, they don’t look like they do anything new to what we have (only scanned).

And now we raise that question which this was all about…

How many people did actually choose to pay 30000% more for this content?

:thinking:

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as i explain in the unique faq,a unique item either has a unique mechanic (the poison in the haven dagger, the greed cane spawning coins when you ko someone) or they have unique minor stats ( the jaeger 7 green eye having a unique combination of perks, the guru grenade having a bigger radius)

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Okay I see. Cheers.

Some I don’t understand such as the roar flash. And increasing an integer for bullets is unique? The gun looks identical still :joy:

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Roar flash is proxim rather than time based or trigger based than other flash devices. And the shashka beast has more bullets but fires slower making it unique gameplay wise

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