Io Interactive’s Hitman franchise has weathered numerous and major changes since its 2016 relaunch. It’s impressive that Io has been able to keep much of the content available from Hitman, Hitman 2, and the current Hitman 3 but it’s gotten a lot harder for even long-time players to tell what they own and on what platform.
With that in mind, Io announced on January 3rd that Hitman 3 will be rebranded as ‘HITMAN World of Assassination’ and that older existing releases of Hitman (2016) and Hitman 2 (2018) will be removed from sale. Io confirmed in their announcement that current versions of Hitman 3 will remain available through the ‘World of Assassination’ launch. The rebranding launch is set to take place on January 26th at which point Hitman and Hitman 2 are expected to be delisted if they haven’t already been removed over the next three weeks.
Across the last three releases the Hitman titles have seen dozens, if not hundreds, of DLC add-ons and online-focused modes and rankings. Unfortunately, not every bit of that content will be coming forward but Io has announced an “even split” structure, explaining that “if you own some (but not all) of that content, you’ll be able to buy whatever you’re missing – at a new and reduced price”. Their announcement adds a few more details on how this new structure will differ between Steam and the games’ in-game stores.
Thanks to everyone who pointed out the news. I’ve added the date of the 26th to the Watch List calendar for now.