I think I disagree with you there.
I think Part One has an honest place.
A lower cost entry point to the game.
A “Discovery Pack”.
The whole “misleading the storefront when on sale by making it look like it’s the whole game that’s on sale” is still dishonourable though.
That’s a different situation. It wasn’t “taken away from us”, it was tied up with Sony on the PS4. We never had it to begin with.
Moreover, its one of the cheaper DLCs and I’m honestly pretty happy with it being on all platforms now, as well as it potentially paying off Sony who, let’s be real here, wanted money to release it from exclusivity shackles
Personally I dont think so, the cheaper entry point should be the starter pack, that’s why Dribble and other people have suggested to include Paris as part of the FSP, that would be a great way to introduce new players to what the WoA has to offer at the comfortable price of nothing. The existence of Part one only helps in making buying the game more confusing, besides, as I said in a post above, if you want to upgrade from part one to the full thing you have to pay for what you already own. Its a predatory scam.
That is not true.
HITMAN World of Assassination Part One features:
- 6 Iconic HITMAN locations: Paris, Sapienza, Marrakesh, Bangkok, Colorado and Hokkaido
- HITMAN GOTY Edition content: Patient Zero Bonus campaign, 3 Themed Escalation Contracts with Outfits and Weapon rewards
This does not give access to the Freelancer and VR game modes. An option to upgrade to the full World of Assassination is available.
Hello Agents,
We’d like to clear up some questions about the newly listed “Episode Sapienza” product on Steam, Epic, PlayStation, Xbox, and the Microsoft Store.
What’s included in Episode Sapienza?
It’s a standalone bundle designed to give brand-new players an affordable way to fully own one of HITMAN’s most beloved locations without having to purchase the entire HITMAN World of Assassination. Sapienza is both a fan and developer favorite map, making it an ideal showcase for newcomers. Unlike the Free Starter Pack, which sometimes offers limited or rotating content, Episode Sapienza remains permanently available, giving new players a complete mission experience at a lower price point.
We recognize that multiple entry points can be confusing, and it’s certainly not our intention to overwhelm anyone. Rather, we want to give options for new agents to explore HITMAN and see what the World of Assassination is all about, before deciding if they want to commit to more content. We’re also mindful of the need to remain competitive in global markets where pricing sensitivities vary, and this new bundle helps us meet those diverse needs.
Thank you all for your ongoing feedback and support. We hope Episode Sapienza opens the door for more players to join our incredible community of 75 million agents and enjoy countless hours of assassination goodness.
Stay sharp,
Samir & Team
Well, I’ll be dammed, there actually is? Where is it? My guess is that it’s on the in game store only for part one owners. I thought such upgrade didn’t exist since it isn’t anywhere on any of the stores I’ve checked. That’s my bad then, I apologize.
As I mentioned in another comment on this thread, I don’t think there is enough explanation as to which upgrade to buy next for those who have purchased the “Episode: Sapienza” package.
As far as I know, the majority of “Part One” buyers who thought “this is a scam” were unaware of the “upgrade packs” and purchased “World of Assassination” (unbranded).
In other words, they were double-purchasing the Part One component.
I believe this is due to a lack of explanation at the time of purchase and also due to the absence of a link to the upgrade pack on the product page.
Some users were not aware of the in-game store link.
Similarly, if one purchases the “Episode: Sapienza” package, it is difficult to know which package to buy to get back to “World of Assassination (unbranded)” status.
There is already an “upgrade pack” available, which is a pack of the standard packages of “HITMAN2” and “HITMAN3” and should not include the “HITMAN1 GOTY” elements.
I think there should be an explanation of this and a link to the upgrade product for “Episode: Sapienza” in the store of each platform.
No issues.
I don’t know if it appears in the in-game store menu.
Or even the Hitman steam page if you possess Part One.
But I sure hope so.
Because if not, your point of predatory system will be the right one.
It cannot be found by itself on steam search.
I had to use google, “Hitman Upgrade Pack” to find it.
Speaking of predatory, Hitman 3 Deluxe Pack is still at the top of the list if you search a way to upgrade to Deluxe.
WoA Deluxe also appears beneath, but come on.
And that scammed a bunch of people out.
For @Combatglue
I understand that it’s a copy-paste of a corporate response.
But please cut the “Agents” Social Media quirky behaviour here.
Have some standing and respect.
Is this going to address the fact that Hitman World Of Assassination misleadingly appears on sale at 5.99 on the steam frontpage and search?
That is purely consumer hostile.
This. It’s the best way forward. Although I agree with IOI regarding Sapienza being the showcase map.
I have always viewed Part One (and now Episode: Sapienza) as search engine optimisation. As it’ll show that WoA is super cheap! When in reality it was previously just HITMAN 2016 GOTY, but now it’s Sapienza. I don’t disagree that you could argue this as misleading.
@Combatglue (and team) I urge you to at least rethink pricing on Sapienza, especially when Part One is (or well was) so cheap when on sale. Even cheaper than discounted Sapienza.
Ofcourse, sorry about that.
About the steam frontpage, I will check, but from my understanding the steampage will show the cheapest option.
I think having “multiple entry points” is precisely the problem. First of all, it makes the free starter pack redundant, it might as well not be there. Secondly, it does overwhelm customers, nobody wants to read a chart just know what they should buy and what not, people just want to play the game, especially today, where every game AAA has some sort of corky edition system, players are shifting towards the oldschool release system of “buy it and play it”, that’s why indie games are being so popular right now. This sort of marketing is one of the reasons AAA gaming is in such a crisis right now.
Also, to add to the whole part one discussion
I think the price of the upgrade should be public for everyone to see. I think potential customers have the right to know how much the upgrade would cost them should they buy part one BEFORE they make the purchase. I can’t be the only one who tought part one was a scam because the upgrade is not easily accessible.
Holy shit this is so boilerplate that it hurts.
Sorry @Thrison, you’ve lost the bet.
Okay, let me break down why this is so bad. While this gives an insight into your thoughts, which I do appreciate, it reads so much more like an advertisement rather than a response catered to the community. There’s no need to give us what is essentially a store page blurb.
And more importantly, it’s dodging so many of our questions that it’s honestly pretty goddamn insulting.
We recognize that multiple entry points can be confusing, and it’s certainly not our intention to overwhelm anyone
Refer back to this post I made earlier. Tell the team that three editions is the best way forward; FSP with a free location, Standard and Deluxe. This setup causes minimal confusion, and still gives players a taste of the game for free. Your system is currently overcomplicated because you, as a company, made it complicated.
I am really dissapointed with how much this just seems like a way to get as much from the consumer as IOI can, rather than as a entry point(which already exists in the free starter pack). IOI has publicly acknowledged the Trojan Horse strategy doesn’t work, so this just comes off as greedy and misleading. All this does is make it more confusing to buy your game. The subreddit should not need a ‘how to buy this game’ website pinned to the frontpage again.
It might be true.
Even though I wouldn’t disregard the possibility that it’s because the Sapienza Pack and before the Part One pack are at the top of the list.
On equal footing with the base offers.
Unless this is also automatically placed in price option.
The celebrity bundle and starter pack don’t count because they are respectively a demo and a bundle, isn’t it? The game never appeared as free, or at 10ish respectively.
It can’t hurt to at least try to put the base game “World of Assassination” 69.99 at the top of the list and see what happens.
Or maybe have sapienza and part one be tagged as bundles. If they can, since they are still stand-alones.
(I personnaly get what the Sapienza pack is supposed to be. I am dismay that this is the only innovation for Hitman that happened in a while. But I get it.)
I find it really stupid to use Sapienza’s “fan favourite” status as justification for this colossally dumb decision, considering that not a single fan asked for this change or was asked for an opinion on the change before it happened – and all of the feedback after the change seems negative as well. This is just plain hostile against the consumer and seems like an effort to artificially lower the marketed price of the game.
In fairness, this wasn’t made for the fans, but for newcomers. Doesn’t help anything, but the fact that no fans were asking for this as you said doesn’t really matter, because that’s not who this is intended for.
Good job they won’t need any fans to be feeling positively towards them when they release their next mainline game then. They’re really planning ahead.
I’m not saying it’s smart or that I agree, I’m just saying that, as it was stated that no fans asked for this, that’s because this wasn’t geared towards us existing fans. Choosing to go through with this, for good or ill, is not based on the input of existing fans.
Yeah, I getchya dude, I just want to keep the focus on how fucking momentously idiotic this decision is in the hope that @Combatglue can relay that message to whatever halfwit is making these decisions up the chain, rather than focusing on IOI’s internal logic (which, again, is completely misguided) around this SNAFU.
Can we please try and keep the personal insults to a minimum. It doesn’t help our cause here.
