This feels like such a long time ago. I remember finishing with Absolution a couple of years prior to seeing this interview and being so hyped for 2016; and boy, despite its flaws, did it deliver…
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It is foreboding to listen to Hakan Abrak try and convince Angry Joe here, who doesn’t appear convinced, about payment a full priced game in episodes without knowing the full extent of the content to be purchased in Hitman2016.
You can see how Hakan’s sales pitch is failing here, in front of the big Square Enix logo… which was soon to disappear… It would be many, many years before Hakan would recoup costs for Hitman2016 development.
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With the comments on that video, you can see how much confusion the episodic format was causing at the time. People just werent ready yet. I bought 2016 when it was goty so I dont know how the episodic experience was but sure seems confusing…
You can hear the defensive argument from Hakan in 2016 “IOI isn’t scamming their customers with an unfinished product. We wouldn’t do that.”
We are releasing Hitman2016 episode-by-episode because we believe this is the best way to introduce a Hitman level, where the Hitman community are all to play the same content at the same time, like everyone together in a live concert performance, completing all the content we are offering over a month.
Yes there will be a disc version of the complete season, but we believe that gamers would appreciate this release model, episode-by-episode and that you will have to trust us with your money that we will be providing you with a lot of quality content before the season is over.
No one bought this argument, and everyone assumed that this was a marketing scam.
And in 2021, almost everyone on this forum would be willing to pay for new, well polished, mission episodes one-by-one for the World of Assassination Trilogy, such as an airport or a maximum security prison or a casino location/mission.
But now that everyone now gets what IOI was doing in hindsight with the World of Assassination Trilogy, IOI now have moved onto new things.
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We can all hunt coins collectively for the next 6 weeks. Like at a concert, just sit still and listen to the soundtrack and stuff. Then escalate the escalation and re-escalate it some more.
In fairness I don’t think the episodic model worked well because their wasn’t a solid base. I. E have half of Hitman 1 released while waiting up two months for the new map. It feel bit frustrating only having little else to play. Plus it also made Paris have way to much Escalations and ETs only for later maps to a couple ETs and a few Escalations.
I think from Hitman 1 or 2 onward, episodic maps would of worked alot better as had a solid base to still enjoy and having ETs and Escalations more even distributed.
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I agree with you that the episodic model is more feasible now because there is a solid base of support of gamers who trust IOI in producing valued product for money.
It was a bit naïve of Hakan to think that gamers would just have to trust IOI with their unique plan for an episodic release, and agree to purchase what was not a completed season of content available on disk. The trust and fanbase were not there yet for this idea.
It was a major miscalculation by IO, and Hakan knows it as he is trying his best to reassure the questioners in 2016 of why IO was going with an episodic release model for Hitman2016.
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Yeah, the idea itself isn’t wrong. For instance i’ve seen it used in Resident Evil Revilations 2, the thing he talks about does improve the feeling you have with a game, when people are simultaneously going through similar content and give each other feedback and there’s no ‘how to’ guide just yet.
Except resident evil and revelations already had a much stronger reputation and fanbase going for them and people could purchase episode by episode if they wished.
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I’m happy to see that IOI has been through that incredible rollercoaster since 2016 and they’re still here, releasing the final chapter of the trilogy despite all the challenges that appeared in their route, it’s an amazing completion and they should be rewarded for that.
However lots of things happened since 2016 and some of their decisions about this game franchise development have been very odd or questioning their interest into this game anymore (like the huge backlog from H2).
Now the covid appeared and it made it even more difficult to being able to complete the game without damages (i’ve read that interview with Forest, what a thrill!).
However HITMAN 3 launched and it gave them more money than expected in a short time period, which should make them happy about being able to deliver this final chapter despite the problems that happened.
But it seems that they don’t care that much anymore, as most of the team went away to develop the next 007 game and i’ve seen that they have a limited staff to work on this last sequel.
It’s very cool for them to have Barbara’s trust and greenlight to develop such a huge movie franchise into another game. But i think that HITMAN III deserves a better treatment with more people working on it, as it will be the last game for the next years to come.
Before focusing on another game i think they should come back onto HITMAN III and finish the job properly, by addressing all those backlog issues who made that game challenged by bugs, crashes, and few things here and there who ruins the general experience.
I’ve seen interviews from different staff members, including Mattias who felt so passionated about bringing something greater into this game. Make it happen guys!
HITMAN III deserves a better treatment and should get the quality it deserves before starting to focus on the next James Bond game, or else i cannot imagine what this game will be if they cannot even polish this last HITMAN game properly 
Here’s my two cents about the new DLC pack, “Seven Deadly Sins”: HITMAN 3: Seven Deadly Sins (NEW DLC) - #1157 by PatteDeFruit
Wishing them the best for the next anyway, cheers!
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