New Hitman Delayed to March 2016

IO Interactive has announced today that Agent 47’s return to the Hitman series will be moving out of the busy holiday season, from December to a March 2016 release date. This delay applies to all versions of the game: PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam. Square Enix announced the title back at E3 and showed off an impressive and in-depth trailer.

In a post on the game’s blog IO Interactive wrote, “Moving a launch date is never an easy decision, we know it’s frustrating to have to wait a bit longer for the game, but we truly believe it will mean we can deliver a better launch and overall experience. We’ll share more details next week about the full release schedule and scope of HITMAN in general so keep a look out for that.”

Hitman will receive a different sort of release from any of the previous games. IO and Square Enix plan to release the game in chunks, starting with a sizeable initial launch. After that, it will receive frequent updates as the rest of the locations will be released digitally over time. IO hopes that the delay can help them deliver more content to fans on a timely basis, ” These few extra months will mean we can add more to the launch content of the game, more than we had originally planned, and then follow with a tighter frequency of updates, which ultimately will create a better game for everyone. And in the end, that’s what we’re all looking for.”

IO also released an infographic detailing just how much larger the environments will be for the new game. In it they compare the size of a new mission called Paris Showstopper, to the largest level in Hitman: Absolution, Streets of Hope. Paris Showstopper comes in at a whopping six times larger than it’s predecessors largest level. Take a look at the infographic below, and let us know what you think about Hitman’s delay in the comments below. With its new release model, do you think this is a wise move by IO Interactive and Square Enix?

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