By the way, I find it kinda funny they didn’t put the Special Assignments in this image despite them being a “major” part of the Hitman 2 expansion too. Maybe they’re considered part of the “contracts and challenges”?
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I mean, they are a bit lackluster.
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Then turn to the storefronts that provide your game, not IOI. They will be the most likely be the point of failure, even for fully offline games.
What do store fronts have to do with servers?
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They host the game download (alongside patches), they verify your ownership before you can even start the game (meaning you must be online at some point). And for consoles, it doesn’t matter about having a disc, because that doesn’t even have the full game on it.
I agree with you but you missed my point. I expressed my opinion about a possible shutdown that might happen just after (or some months after) the games will be delisted (this is what some people are predicting here and here). I agree with Urben, and I give a technical element that I have to my knowledge and why I think that will not happen soon™.
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Ok, sound like you’re describing what servers do, not what storefronts have to do with them, unless I’m completely misunderstanding what you mean by storefronts, which I suspect that I am. Either way, this is only confirming that this whole being online to play/activate/update/have anything to do with games these days is making us beholden to these online services remaining in place in order to enjoy them.
I know, but my focus was on the last part, and here too: the fact that it won’t happen soon. That it happens at all, soon or far in the future, is the issue. You have people who can right now, today, go and purchase an old Nintendo first generation console from someone who’s kept it in good condition, start playing original Mario on it, and get essentially the same experience that people got back when it first came out.
Meanwhile, games released since at least the mid-to-late 00s have some content not available anymore once support for them fully stopped, and people just now getting into them have some content cut off from them forever. In the Mario example, so long as it is possible to physically play the game, anyone can enjoy it at any time; for games coming out now, they are becoming more and more beholden to constant online support for the full experience, meaning that their prime and full playability has a shelf-life far shorter than merely having the physical devices that can run them.
Regardless of how far off this may be, the fact that keeping your hardware in good condition is no longer the only thing you need to worry about to have a full game experience is a situation that absolutely sucks.
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Ownership of the content is verified with the storefront on starting the game. IO’s server would refuse to answer any requests if this validation wasn’t done.
Won’t answer to the other stuff since it is the worse can of worms that is off topic here. Please don’t derail this further.
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There are so many versions of Hitman2016, Hitman 2 and Hitman III, with versions playable in Stadia, PC, PS4, PS5, XBoxOne, XBox SeriesX. To make a single unified version of Hitman saves IOI a lot of headaches, and bugfixes. Consolidation is probably because:
a) The future of Hitman is associated with Freelancer which require all 20+ locations in the World of Assassination;
b) IOI want to consolidate Hitman versions into one so that they can spend less resources going forward in maintaining and updating Hitman. It can be evidence that IOI are generally moving beyond Hitman to their dedication of resources to Project 007 and other new IP.
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New update could be also a way to create new campaignes through 21 locations
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Yes, it would be great if IOI had another overarching story narrative through multiple revised locations like the Patient Zero campaign.
However, I doubt it because they made the Patient Zero campaign after failure of sales of HITMAN2016 and the close proximity in time when IOI was being let go by Square Enix.
IOI don’t need to extend Hitman for purpose of sales to survive.
IOI are focused on fulfilling promises made to generate a hit video game franchise out of James Bond whose rights are owned by the EON Productions Limited / Danjaq LLC, under control of the Wilson/Broccoli family.
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It doesn’t require it, it was simply something they wanted to do. They very easily could’ve limited Freelancer to locations that you own. It was something they chose to do so that people that only own H3 for example would have 17 maps to play in rather than just 6, to make the mode feel more varied and less repeaty.
Not to mention, a good justification to increase the price of the game as it heads into its third year since release rather than decreasing it.
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True, and it’s still a fantastic, very pro-consumer move overall. One that will probably help people (or somehow the people that don’t own the Access Passes) get a worthwhile experience out of Freelancer.
I don’t think it was mentioned, but I guess people that won’t own the WOA Deluxe Pack will not see New York or Haven Island appear in their Freelancer pool of locations, until they get it themselves.
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It would be a good way to incentivise buying the locations if you could come across them in Freelancer, and try them out… On the other hand, you could argue that it would invalidate buying them as you would still be able to play the level whenever it comes up in Freelancer.
There were dozens and dozens of different versions of Hitman, going back to 2016. The complications in having so many versions of Hitman was mentioned by IOI when everyone needed to port their previous saved content from HITMAN2016 and Hitman 2 into Hitman 3.
Maintaining and bug fixing all these different versions of Hitman, including legacy content going back seven years ago (2016) is just a major pain. Consolidation of Hitman into one version makes things a lot easier for IOI.
There are only three different versions - HITMAN, HITMAN 2 and HITMAN 3. Everything else was just a repackage of one of these three versions coming with different DLCs and just received the same patches, connected to the exact same servers as another repackage of the same “version” on the same platform would etc.
It seems like you think IO made it more convoluted than it actually is.
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Here’s every DLC, demo, physical edition and more I could find online of this trilogy, which IOI is going to replace with 2 items. Bear in mind, this is for 3 games:
- HITMAN
- HITMAN (Not Sold Separately Base Version)
- HITMAN GOTY Edition
- HITMAN Definitive Edition
- HITMAN Collector’s Edition
- HITMAN Steelbook Edition
- HITMAN The Complete First Season
- HITMAN GOTY Edition Upgrade
- HITMAN - Intro Pack
- HITMAN - FULL EXPERIENCE
- HITMAN - FULL EXPERIENCE Upgrade
- HITMAN - Japanese V/O Pack
- HITMAN Episode 1 - Paris
- HITMAN Episode 2 - Sapienza
- HITMAN Episode 3 - Marrakesh
- HITMAN Summer Bonus Episode
- HITMAN Episode 4 - Bangkok
- HITMAN Episode 5 - Colorado
- HITMAN Episode 6 - Hokkaido
- HITMAN Bonus Campaign: Patient Zero
- HITMAN Requiem Pack
- HITMAN Requiem Pack - Silenced ICA-19 Chrome Pistol
- HITMAN Requiem Pack - Legacy Suit
- HITMAN Requiem Pack - White Rubber Duck Explosive
- HITMAN - Anniversary Outfit Bundle
- HITMAN - GOTY Outfit Bundle
- HITMAN - GOTY Outfit Pack - Clown
- HITMAN - GOTY Outfit Pack - Cowboy
- HITMAN - GOTY Outfit Pack - Raven
- HITMAN 2 (Not Sold Seperately Base Version)
- HITMAN 2 - Standard Edition
- HITMAN 2 - Silver Edition
- HITMAN 2 - Gold Edition
- HITMAN 2 - Collector’s Edition
- HITMAN 2 - Silver to Gold Upgrade
- HITMAN 2 - Free Starter Pack
- HITMAN - Legacy Pack
- HITMAN - GOTY Legacy Pack
- HITMAN - GOTY Legacy Pack Upgrade
- HITMAN - Legacy: Paris
- HITMAN - Legacy: Sapienza
- HITMAN - Legacy: Marrakesh
- HITMAN - Legacy: Summer Bonus Episode
- HITMAN - Legacy: Bangkok
- HITMAN - Legacy: Colorado
- HITMAN - Legacy: Hokkaido
- HITMAN - Bonus Campaign: Patient Zero (Legacy Pack Version)
- HITMAN - GOTY Outfit Pack: Clown (Legacy Pack Version)
- HITMAN - GOTY Outfit Pack: Cowboy (Legacy Pack Version)
- HITMAN - GOTY Outfit Pack: Raven (Legacy Pack Version)
- HITMAN Requiem Pack - Requiem Legacy Suit (Legacy Pack Version)
- HITMAN Requiem Pack - White Rubber Duck Explosive (Legacy Pack Version)
- HITMAN Requiem Pack - Silenced ICA-19 Chrome Pistol (Legacy Pack Version)
- HITMAN 2 - Expansion Pass
- HITMAN 2 - Expansion Pack 1
- HITMAN 2 - Expansion Pack 2
- HITMAN 2 - Hawke’s Bay
- HITMAN 2 - Miami
- HITMAN 2 - Santa Fortuna
- HITMAN 2 - Mumbai
- HITMAN 2 - Whittleton Creek
- HITMAN 2 - Isle of Sgàil
- HITMAN 2 - Himmelstein
- HITMAN 2 - New York
- HITMAN 2 - Hantu Port
- HITMAN 2 - Special Assignments Pack 1
- HITMAN 2 - Winter Sports Pack
- HITMAN 2 - Executive Pack
- HITMAN 2 - Haven Island
- HITMAN 2 - Siberia
- HITMAN 2 - Special Assignments Pack 2
- HITMAN 2 - Smart Casual Pack
- HITMAN 2 - Collector’s Pack
- HITMAN 3 - Standard Edition
- HITMAN 3 - Deluxe Pack
- HITMAN 3 - Deluxe Edition
- HITMAN 3 (Not Sold Separately Base Version)
- HITMAN 3 - Free Starter Pack
- HITMAN Trilogy
- HITMAN Trilogy Premium Add-Ons Bundle
- HITMAN 3 Access Pass: HITMAN 1 Complete First Season
- HITMAN 3 Access Pass: HITMAN 1 GOTY Upgrade
- HITMAN 3 Access Pass: HITMAN 1 GOTY Edition
- HITMAN 3 Access Pass: HITMAN 2 Standard
- HITMAN 3 Access Pass: HITMAN 2 Expansion
- HITMAN 3 Access Pass: HITMAN 2 Gold
- HITMAN 3 - Dubai
- HITMAN 3 - Dartmoor
- HITMAN 3 - Germany
- HITMAN 3 - Chongqing
- HITMAN 3 - Mendoza
- HITMAN 3 - Carpathian Mountains
- HITMAN 3 - Trinity Pack
- HITMAN 3: Seven Deadly Sins Collection
- HITMAN 3: Seven Deadly Sins Act 1: Greed
- HITMAN 3: Seven Deadly Sins Act 2: Pride
- HITMAN 3: Seven Deadly Sins Act 3: Sloth
- HITMAN 3: Seven Deadly Sins Act 4: Lust
- HITMAN 3: Seven Deadly Sins Act 5: Gluttony
- HITMAN 3: Seven Deadly Sins Act 6: Envy
- HITMAN 3: Seven Deadly Sins Act 7: Wrath
- HITMAN 3 - VR Access
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There’s a difference between DLC and completely different version/builds of the game which is what they were getting at.
So not sure what point you thought you were making.
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I also would not claim that different locations constitute different versions of the game.
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I’m not claiming they’re all different versions of the game, I’m stating that if you’re trying to buy the game completely blind, you have to navigate a minefield of random little DLCs with hitman’s name splatted on them. Considering there’s multiple different versions of the same games, both physically and digitally, confusion will inevitably arise. A lot of these are defunct nowadays anyway, so it may become even more confusing. It just pointlessly clutters search results and franchise stores with years upon years of random bits and pieces, which needed cleaning up and removal as soon as a more convenient form of obtaining them was made, otherwise it just appears super daunting to want to buy 1 game and have 97 other, seemingly connected, results appear with it.
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