Hitman Delayed to 2016

It looks like Agent 47 is taking a vacation for the holidays, as Hitman is skipping its Dec. 2015 launch and delayed to next March.

IO Interactive's official website announced that Hitman has been delayed to March 2016. The studio cites the sheer size and scope of this new Hitman being the primary reason as to why the game won't be making its original Dec. 8 release date. For the sake of comparison, IO compared Hitman: Absolution's Streets of Hope level (its largest stage) to the Paris: Showstopper level of the new Hitman. The Showstopper stage is roughly six times larger than Absolution's biggest level. Likewise, there are six times as many Contracts Mode targets. Hitman will also be able to have over 1,300 crowd members present while you try to pull off your assassinations.

Here's what IO Interactive had to say about this delay:

We’re going for a new release model where we put out a good chunk of the game when it beings and then release the remaining locations over time. We want to make absolutely sure you all get the best possible experience when you join, so we’ve made the difficult decision to move the initial release date to March 2016. 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.

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 is now expected to launch for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in March 2016.

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