From what we’ve been told it, it’s just ballooned in regards to what we get at launch - it was clearly planned to launch with a smaller number of locations at first and grow slowly from there across the roadmaps for the rest of 2022. At least that’s my takeaway from the below quote:
We’ve decided to push beyond our original scope for launch and include almost all locations from the World of Assassination from day one.
One thing you guys haven’t mentioned is that Travis said they’re going to release it with (almost) every map available.
It’s probably ready and polished right now on a handful of maps but they elected to wait until it’s ready for all of them rather than rolling them out a few at a time
Anyone seriously upset about the Freelancer release date needs to take a serious look at their life and whether they might better spend their energies in other areas, IMO. I’ve not been at all surprised at the selection of posters with a negative response to what I think is a good news story today.
Freelancer is free, baby - wahoo!
Well, what was I saying? It’s FREElancer, of course it’s gonna be FREE, duh!
Anyway, great to hear we have concrete date. Looks like IO will push all game-changing updates to begining of year. I hope there will be more than Year 3, this game has potential.
The only way to see change is to demand it. Complacency about the mediocrity of current h3 content will only bring more mediocre content
I hope that for the Steam peeps (I’m one) who get chosen to participate in the Closed Testing phase (who knows?), there ends up being a nicely varied selection of the player-base: speedrunners and roleplayers, skilled players and scrubs.
As a mediocre player myself, I don’t want to see Freelancer’s economy and gameplay being tuned only to challenge the best and brightest - hopefully the mode will offer a similar level of challenge to the main game which I think is a great balance between being reasonably accessible to n00bs, but with the tools to provide extra meat for skilled players via Settings in the options menu, Challenges, or self-imposed restrictions like SASONKO runs etc.
I don’t entirely agree with the assertion that H3 content has been mediocre (I was very much not a fan of the 7DS, but I think Ambrose Island has been a splendid addition), but I do agree that [respectfully] voicing what we as fans want to see IOI do with the game is the best way to make that likely to happen, so given the Like to this post overall.
The first time they announced it, they said it was expected to be released in Spring. Now, that’s not definitive, and I even said at the time that I’d they didn’t deliver it then, that it wouldn’t be a lie, because it was not a promised or confirmed date. However, it wasn’t until Spring was almost over, with no word from them, before they told us it was delayed. If they had told us in March, the beginning of Spring, it wouldn’t have been so bad.
The second time, they said it would be released later in the year. Again, no committed date, and no actual promise, but still, again, setting our expectations that we would in fact get it this year, and that it had simply switched places with when Ambrose was going to be released, since they swapped it with Ambrose. But now, here we are getting into “later in the year,” not quite near the end of course, but still three months removed almost since Ambrose, and now being told it’s going to be even longer. They could have told us that at the end of July, or the beginning of august, to at least prepare for it to not release before the end of the year after all. Even if they weren’t sure, it would have been better to let us live with that then than to go almost three more months thinking that there was a chance it was right around the corner.
Go outside, dude.
20otherthingstodowithyourtime
Of course, but not the point. And not really, no. I value my entertainment above all things, and my mind for most of this year has been filled with the anticipation of this new entertainment, now withheld even longer without a more timely warning.
But “later this year” could have been december. So january is not that late of a delay 
I just think your expectations (and the expectations from others) were way too high, but I personally don’t see the mistake by IOI, since they didn’t gave us anything clear to hang on 
And if you have low expectations, the surprise is even bigger! Just imagine how happy I was when I saw Grey on Ambrose, I wouldn’t have expected that and was so happy! So maybe lower the own expectations can give you an even better experience when the game mode finally is out 
just a friendly advice!
That’s true, and I know that, but they still let me, let all of us think that maybe it’ll be next month, or maybe the one after that, or maybe… you see? Just tell us early on, hey guys, we don’t know, maybe tomorrow, maybe next year, just stand by. By saying later in the year, yeah, that could mean December, and it could also have meant September. We had a window of time to imagine and hope for its arrival.
Anyway, I’m calming down from it, and while I hate the timing of how this was revealed, it is something of a relief to at least get a definitive date assigned, meaning they’re more confident that that’s definitely when it will happen. And it means that by the time it arrives, unless something really interferes with my playing time, I’ll have 100% completion by the time it rolls around for certain, and can dedicate my full attention to the new mode.
Great news we’ve finally got a date for Freelancer. Why does January feel like ages away??? 
Also separately, it’s cool to see Travis teasing Year 3 news!!!
It is always, but now is especially a great time to be a Hitman fan!! 
Also, small detail in the announcement everyone is overlooking is that there is now a confirmed mastery track(s) for freelancer. Whether that means one singular overall track for the mode, or a mastery track for every location, or just for the Hitman 3 locations is unknown.
But it makes me wonder what kind of unlocks will be in the track
Reskins would be a safe bet.
absolutely… there was that one time tho 
Too many cool moments to pin point to one in my opinion 
Wouldn’t doubt it, but based on the leaks, we’ll also be getting some new items + new suits as well. So a mix. Which is standard for this series.
I’m just glad it’s free. Free is always good. And I don’t care that it’s “delayed”. If a “delay” means polished and bug free, I’m good. AND it includes most of the existing maps??!! A+ I understand how complex and difficult game design is, so if they are taking the time to get it right, I am happy.