While a lot of gamers were initially overjoyed at the announcement of a brand new Hitman game this E3, against all odds, that joy quickly turned into caution and then flat out cynicism, when it was announced the game would be released in ‘episodes,’ which meant that it would not be launching feature complete.
Since then, the developers have made multiple attempts to assure us that their approach will be for the best, and ultimately beneficial for the game and for the players, and today, Square Enix US and Europe boss Phil Rogers discussed the new approach in a recent interview with MCV.
“We are dev-centric,” said Rogers. “When you are in the final months of development, that’s when some devs have their most creative ideas. It’s then that they understand the tool chain, how to create great content… really they are at their peak. With Hitman Absolution IO realised its creativity was peaking and that it could continue to deliver more content. That seeded the idea that, with the next Hitman, it could have an ever-evolving, ever-deepening world.
“But we’re constantly learning and trying to predict where install bases will be,” he continues, “how things are going to resonate… but we’ve also learned that great games can sell for a long period. For us it’s not just about a day one spike and then forget about it, what we are trying to do is make sure we continue to engage and build sales over a longer lifetime.”
Good to hear that (also, it makes for a nice change from a few years ago, when even sales of a few million units would not satisfy Square Enix). Hopefully, the new approach ends up paying off for them and for players, instead of starting another abusive and exploitative trend.
