Hitman’s developer is taking the brave step of avoiding paid-for downloadable content.
With season passes increasingly becoming the norm for triple-A games, Danish studio IO-Interactive says it won’t be using the model with its upcoming Hitman stealth title despite offering significant post-release content. Hitman releases digitally on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in December this year, and everything that IO-Interactive creates for it will be part of the $60 price. Speaking to VideoGamer, studio head Hannes Seifert said that adding extra paid content is the “wrong approach” as it makes gamers feel “ripped off.”
The upcoming Batman: Arkham Knight has a very pricey season pass, running at $40 with new content releasing over a six-month period. Hitman, on the other hand, is going to launch with a set amount of content in December, and then IO-Interactive will add more for free over a period of months, culminating in a boxed release of the game.
“There are other products that sell a game for $60 and then try to sell you a season pass for another $40 on top,” Seifert said, “so you spend $100 or $120 for all the stuff that happens later on. We said, ‘No, we don’t want to do that.'”
Seifert said that Hitman will be a large game — even larger than the previous console entry in the series, Hitman: Absolution — and will keep players entertained as new content is added over time. “It’s $60,” he said. “No dollar more, no DLC or microtransactions or stuff like that. You will buy it, and you will have entertainment for a few months on top.”