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Despite these patches of resistance, however, Hitman is notable for managing to be both a new idea and precisely what the series' fans had been asking for. IO's previous game, Hitman: Absolution, attracted some criticism for departing from the series' unique identity; an attempt, perhaps, to appeal to a wider audience by aligning the game with more conventional third-person action titles. The new Hitman was a conscious return to the immaculately crafted sandboxes that defined Blood Money, widely regarded as the best game in the franchise. If anything, the digital distribution and episodic business model that so concerned its fanbase actually allowed IO to push that distinctive approach further than ever before.
Ultimately, the early missions were enough to assuage those fears. In his GDC talk, Seifert described a "mid-season sentiment change" following the launch of Sapienza - which, in the opinion of this journalist, is as good a mission as IO has ever made - and the introduction of new features that took full advantage of its connected audience. The studio worked on the missions in parallel to ensure that it could stick to its monthly release schedule, but Seifert saw Hitman's live features as "the pulse" of the experience; incentives to keep people playing even after each mission had been completed.
The most important of these are the Elusive Targets: specially created characters dropped into the game world for a limited period of time, which players must track and kill before they disappear. Sapienza was improved due to IO's ability to monitor and interact with its players, Seifert says, but it would still be a good experience offline. An idea like Elusive Targets, however, would be impossible to achieve without an internet connection. "You can only do it this way," he adds. "I'm somewhat proud that our team came up with something that... it's a new feeling when you play the game. In this day and age it's hard to come up with new feelings."
The live events also had a commercial impact. Elusive Targets energised the game's community, prompting enthusiastic discussion before during and after each one dropped. "The more people play [live events], the more people talk about it, and that translates to sales," Seifert says. "This is new to us. I can say that. We haven't seen this pattern before."
According to Seifert, more than 60% of the game's players either purchased the full season for $60 immediately, or upgraded to it after playing one or more of the missions. Square Enix has avoided discounts, too, and yet Hitman continues to attract new players every single day. "With disc releases, we have the tendency to discount - sometimes too early - just because it's on physical shelves and the space is needed. You don't really have control over you pricing. In digital that's different.
"Every single unit we sell is in the hand of the consumer. With discs you have this huge day one sell-in, but with digital you sell through on day one. I've sold more [on day one] in the past, but then you see a spike, and another spike - it's constant sell through. That's what amazes me the most."
"With a TV show, when a new episode comes out there might be some new people who watch the previous ones as they enter, but it won't be evenly distributed. What we've seen is that, people who come in, no matter how much content is out, it's almost equally distributed."
Hitman's entire first season will be eventually be released in a box, but Seifert is keen to puncture any notion that the physical release is what IO has been working towards. The collected version is likely to get better reviews than the discrete missions - a trend that Seifert claims is true of The Walking Dead, Life is Strange, and the majority of episodic games - but it exists principally for those who lack an online connection that can handle large downloads, and those who, well, really like boxes. Seifert has no desire to alienate any potential customer, but the simple fact is that discs and boxes are antithetical to IO's ambitions. "That's not what it's about," Seifert says. "It's about something that runs continuously and expands continuously."
With no microtransactions or in-game monetisation, Hitman must necessarily be sold in seasons for the economics to work, but Seifert is very clear that the game is a "multi-season proposition." It may not be as fast as a TV show, with a new season each year, but IO has reduced its development time drastically since the six year gap between Blood Money and Absolution, and the goal is to keep bringing that number down.
"When we say an ever expanding world of assassination, it means we don't have to take everything that's out there, throw it away and make a new game," Seifert says "We can actually build on that. Just imagine after two or three seasons, you enter at that point in time, the amount of content will just blow your mind. That's where we want to be."