It’s known as HITMAN, Sapienza Edition.
It was being sold as an entry into the game, or by itself, at a price that was higher than it needed to be, and that higher price comes across as taking advantage of people.
Whether buying the Sapienza edition granted you a fair discount to the other missions - I still don’t know, but that would at least justify the price IOI was asking for it.
If it didn’t grant a discount to the missing missions then it was definitely a rip-off.
I think there is a big divide between how HMF and Reddit fans are seeing these things and what IO is getting back from the vast majority of gamers.
A critique or “controversy” can seem like the whole world here with all the comments and upvotes, but the world is big. Effectively no one knows about these things.
To understand this divide, people should google IO Interactives latest financial report. It’s there for all to read. The lower-cost entry (Episode One: Sapienza) has caused a boost in sales. The same with the celebrity ETs, controversy or not.
Basically, WOA has been selling above expectation. They won’t stop these strategies anytime soon.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t be critical either. Normally, I would say that they owe us nothing because Hitman III came out 4 years ago and we even got Ambrose and Freelancer for free.
But seeing as they’re regularly releasing new DLC to purchase (which I gladly pay for), we do get to hold them accountable for the product. Even now, years after release. Some of these bugs are really not acceptable. Some are game-breaking.
But there really is a a big gap between vocal minority and majority players, and what IO are experiencing in terms of sales.
The issue is, they are focusing on sales, at a time when they are already succeeding with the product beyond anything they could have hoped for, over keeping that product as good in quality as they could if they would devote more time to that rather than focusing on sales. That comes across more as a company in it for the money than in it for pleasing the public with their art, with money just being the means to the end (beyond compensating their employees). And just like with the scandalous ETs, that’s not to say that IOI actually is condoning such a thing just because it looks that way, but the mere fact that it looks that way is a problem unto itself. How did the talented independent little developer who took care of their games and never failed to engage with their fanbase become this cookie-cutter corporate entity more concerned with selling more and more and gaining more and more than in being how they already were but with wider reach now?
Been spending a lot of time typing out what I wanted to say but I’m speaking in circles so I’ll simply say this.
PSVR2, Roadmap and Content Updates, Switch 2 Version is the Lipstick.
The Patch and the current state of the game is the Pig.
I have to disagree. They are providing us a service (the game) so they have to deliver it properly.
Not exactly the point you two were making, but I find it funny you can also apply this to the Hitman VR releases so far.
PSVR2 is the improved successor to VR Reloaded (MQ3) which was the [intended at least] improved successor to PCVR, which was the improved successor to PSVR.
Round and round we go… when will the versions match up? Nobody knows! 
True, however, counterpoint…
Business translation:
▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ make more money ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇?
For instance, take Nintendo’s moves with the Switch 2. Alledgedly, but there’s enough worry and outcry that clearly this is not what people expected from them.
A tech demo/virtual manual that’ll be a paid game, unspecified price… No price in the showcase of the product, only revealed afterwords to shock in people’s wallets. A new premium $ standard for video games, with no indication as to why specifically that game to set it.
Maybe read the next line in my post?
To that I say speak with your wallets.
I did
Just looking the recent posts, lets just keep our fingers crossed that we get there in the end! 
Some constructive feedback for @Combatglue
The current state of hitman as a software project feels like it consists of people who are divorced from creating a coherent, stable offering and instead, work on their ticket and “throw it over the fence” to QA when they’re done.
This is not a good way to run a project - I’m a software engineer myself and we take pride in having as few bugs as possible for QA to deal with.
Something has gone astray and breaking freelancer like this is unacceptable. The failure to deliver an out-of-band patch to address it even moreso.
I imagine 007 is a primary focus internally but that doesn’t relieve you of the obligation to keep the game in a state that is free of showstopping bugs and, in my work, we would consider this a showstopper.
This needs to be fixed and there needs to be some internal leadership that dedicates some care to the state of the game or this is going to get worse and continue to damage reputation.
While I agree with some of the points, and love the energy here, and even agree with you in spirit… I’d hardly call this post constructive criticism. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that you’re telling IO what to do, and somehow working in a similar field grants you more insight, despite being very different fields in practice, and that somehow… commands more authority?
When I did a breakdown of their website in my now-two-month-old video on the Sapienza edition, I deconstructed the ideas behind the website design and why it was bad and the message it sends to the customer. Yes, I was angry, but I did try to get my point across with some clarity, and remained relatively calm in that segment, because it otherwise distracts from the message.
You essentially said; “Hi, I’m a software engineer, get your ass into gear, and rethink QA”. That’s pretty much it. Not particularly constructive, and not much new ground is being discussed.
I’m a little shocked how much this post got liked…which concerns me. Be angry at IO, absolutely. But don’t overdo it.
The hot fix should have gone out this week in my opinion as a matter of urgency. I totally understand everyone at IOI is busy, however, the team working on Hitman should have shifted their full focus to this issue impacting Freelancer.
Just my opinion obviously
I guess we know what to do then.
Can anybody kill Novikov and see if that fixed the bug?
And Margolis too.
Yeah I bet she’s hidden the Ancestral gun because she wants to give it to Helmut.
No idea what Novikov would want to do with the Splitter SMG though.
Maybe his secret idol is Max Valliant.
I don’t think it was that angry or overdone. Passionate maybe, but nothing rude or out-of-line.
It’s probably not structured in a “constructive” way, but it touches on a lot of points that we want to see change or improve lately.
Right, but pointing out issues does not make for constructive criticism…that’s just reminding everyone what we all know. I have a strong suspicion the comment is being liked so much because it’s just re-affirming the issues to everyone, which does feel satisfying to hear, instead of trying to find solutions, which this comment doesn’t really do.
I don’t think this is passionate, either. Angry doesn’t mean you need to swear up a storm, the language and tone of the entire comment still plays a part here.