New 'Hitman' game now 'fully episodic'

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Square Enix and Io Interactive's upcoming stealth action title Hitman will now be released episodically when the game releases in March.

Announced Thursday, Hitman will launch containing the prologue and first mission, dubbed the "Intro Pack," with subsequent levels taking place in Italy releasing through an update in April followed by Morocco in May.

The game will then continue to receive regular content updates every month with weekly live events planned and additional assassination missions taking place in locales such as the United States, Thailand and Japan.

Players will have the option to pre-purchase the "Full Experience" for $60 or they can choose to buy the game episodically with the "Intro Pack" starting at $15 and future add-ons costing $10 each.

"We decided to take the full leap and publish Hitman as a truly episodic game experience," Io Interactive's Hannes Seifert said in a statement. "Part of that decision is for that little bit of extra time to ensure every location we release is at the quality level fitting for a Hitman game. But the main driving reason is that this will allow us to create a living game that will expand and evolve over time and establish a foundation for the future--this is the first game in a storyline which will continue and expand with future Hitman games."

On Wednesday, Square Enix cancelled digital pre-orders of the game in order to reflect Hitman's new pricing model. Originally, the sixth entry in the popular series was set to release with more content at $60 with the monthly updates still planned.

Before Hitman releases on March 11, Playstation 4 and PC players can reserve a spot in the game's February beta by pre-ordering.