Knew it. Paid DLC expansions of Hitman after the WoA Trilogy.
I said so even before Hitman 3 was released.
IOI have built up a large dedicated player base after completion of the WoA Trilogy. They do not need to attract new fans with free content and free bonus DLC anymore.
Forest Swartout Large, Executive Producer made it clear that there was still a substantial team working on Hitman after completion of the WoA Trilogy.
This didn’t jive with with IOI marketing, which didn’t really discussion details of the future plans for Hitman after the WoA Trilogy.
IOI are capitalizing on the last eight years in putting together their WoA Trilogy (2013-2021).
This idea of paid bonus DLC expansion packs was ALWAYS the plan for Hitman.
Welcome to the “Netflix of Assassination”, the Paradox Interactive approach in the pay-to-play new content.
Paradox Interactive are the king of the Grand Strategy genre. They come out with excellent, polished strategy games with a huge following, who are willing to pay periodically for DLC expansions of their games.
IOI are the king of the stealth puzzle genre. Paid DLC will keep IOI afloat while they spend the next few years incubating with their new IPs, like Project 007. And then Project 007 will be the same. Highly polished – with a lot of content, and then there will be paid DLC expansions.
The video game industry has a problem that video games have become too costly and take too long to make a profit. IOI’s approach with paid DLC expansions is the right approach to recover costs, and fund their future ventures.