Some of you people were getting really in-depth about the timeline of the HITMAN trilogy. So discuss it here, please, not the Freelancer thread 
Also, i point you to this old infographic someone made a while ago:
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The Mendoza mission takes place, at best, four months after the Columbia mission, and thatās pushing it; Hector may have stepped up to try to run it, but he has no chance. Rico knew how to run the business, Andrea had the contacts and connections, and Jorge provided the product. Those three were the reason it was successful, and Hector not only isnāt up to that, but could never find someone he trusts to fill those roles, especially in that amount of time. By the time of Mendoza, whatever conversation was had about the cartel, it will have been shrunk considerably and barely hanging on, and would be gone by the time 47 and Diana started working again. The Freelancer syndicates would be trying to capitalize on that.
Thereās an implied month or two (possibly more) between WC and Sgail (as the gang have the stake out the island), and about a week between SF and Mumbai so four months seems too short a timeframe IMO. six months seems more plausible in my mind. The timeline doesnāt start to accelerate until Golden Handshake, and thereās still at least a week between those missions, if not a few days. And H3ās timeline is basically a mission every few days due to the circumstances. H3 takes place within a month, maybe a tad longer than that.
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So, a week between Colombia and Mumbai, letās say a few weeks or even a month between Mumbai and killing Janus, two months after that to Sgail, and then from the bank to Untouchable, about a month. So, around 4 months.
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You do realise that weāre both guessing, and 4 months could be completely wrong. I swear there was a timeline someone drew up on the forum that works all this out much better than either of us can.
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Iām going off of the info given directly in the game. Anything that goes off of anything else is not something I would trust. Thereās guesswork, yes, but everything given definitively narrows the timeframe for the whole trilogy.
Which isnāt much. Everything else is either implied or can be reasonably guessed. A.K.A; the timeline sucks.
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Ok, this discussion is a little off topic of the thread but Iāll try to definitively clear this up with concrete evidence instead of estimations:
The reporter in Mendoza describes Ken Morganās death in Bangkok as āonly a few months agoā. Yes, seriously.
The Showstopper happens in 2019 (I canāt remember the precise source confirming that but basically everyone seems to agree on that) and I believe Hitman 3 takes place during 2021. (Iāve seen other parts of the community argue 3 takes place during late 2020 and the Freelancer era will be 2021, but Alexa Carlisleās grave for her imminent fake funeral dates her death as during 2021, autumn no less from an NPCās dialogue remarking on how heād love to die with āan autumn funeralā)
So, the only way I see to square those facts would be that the original 4 WoA contracts had a WAY longer time frame between them than initially thought, with Club 27 taking place late spring 2021 at the earliest.
Which Iām pretty sure is a take that contradicts every other WoA timeline Iāve seen, but I donāt see another way to make it work, unless the news reporter is a weirdo whoād describe things that happened last year or even the year before that as āa few months agoā.
The more likely explanation is that IOI have no hard ālore bibleā for everything that happens in exact timeframes, and therefore the timeframe as a whole is murky.
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They do have scripts to know in which period a level takes place at least, so I donāt think they would mess things in the same season, they mightāve just sped stuffs around in-between seasons to make it more coherent though, not that it really matters in most ways, itās just here to give the players a sense of progression and a quick immersion
These kind of discussions always crack me up because the truth is, you guys are putting more thought into these time lines than the creators did.
And itās like that for a lot of entertainment stories. Because itās not really important to them to account for every minute of every day of every month of every year. Some creators WILL try to meticulously plan everything out (either in advance or as the story progresses) but most donāt. Because again, itās not important from their POV. 
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Thatās very much not the case, the devs have put a lot of effort into creating a coherent world both in gameplay and in story, they prepared a ton of stuffs way before we actually got to see it
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Case in point, they made a goddamn comic book. As soon as you start doing that, you get the sense the devs want to have some narrative coherence.
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Me trying to make sense of that timeline: ā¦Noā¦Noā¦thatās notā¦Howā¦does that make sense?
I guarentee you now thereās a lore bible in IOIās offices. You cannot do any kind of cohesive storytelling without it, especially with a game as complex as WOA. Someone at IOI knows the truth.
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Iāve been trying to give this theory the Pepe Silvia treatment, and I THINK I can lay the whole thing out. Weāll start with an overview of the timeframe possibilities between each mission:
Showstopper - Club 27: As laid out in my first post the āonly a few months ago, ken morgan was killedā in Mendoza combined with Alexa Carlsile faking her death in āAutumnā 2021 means the first four WoA missions must span from 2019 to 2021. I actually think this could make narrative sense, as it works with The Constant only catching onto the conspiracy by the time of Club 27.
Freedom Fighters - Situs Inversus: Any length of time couldāve passed between Club 27 and the ICA tracking Olivia. Situs Inversus happens ASAP after Freedom Fighters.
Nightcall - The Finish Line: The time it took for the ICA to find Alma Reynard from the Colorado files is unknown, but The Finish Line takes place ASAP after Nightcall. The Finish Line can also be inferred to take place during summer based on the environment.
Three Headed Serpent - Chasing a Ghost: While Chasing a Ghost follows from intel obtained in Three Headed Serpent, the timeframe of these missions is hard to gauge. The ICA had to take some time to check out the Delgado Cartelās activities after the mission, and Greyās militia released their hostage video.
Another Life - The Ark Society: We have no idea when Lucas Grey used his NFTs to buy the asylum, at best we could argue it implies a timeskip of a few weeks because it happened āa few weeks agoā IIRC in the relevant cutscene, but it couldāve just as easily happened prior to Chasing a Ghost and the ICA only noticed at that point. Another Life is clearly going for a Vermont autumn look so I think we can reasonably assume by this point, it is September or October when the colours are at their most potent. The Ark Society has a stakeout that lasts a while until November 13th, we know the Ark Society meets on that date thanks to the clues in Another Life.
Golden Handshake - Untouchable: While there are gaps between these missions to allow for characters to travel and some amount of recuperation, pretty much all these missions are carried out on an ASAP basis. Notably, 47 and Lucas Grey do travel to Dubai on foot indicating theyāre not in a rush for the Sceptreās grand opening and 47 was presumably sedated for a few days after The Farewell
So, from that, hereās what Iād say is a timeline that makes sense:
2019: The Showstopper
[Between 2019 and June 2021]: World of Tomorrow, A Gilded Cage, most Bonus Missions, probably Patient Zero too, and so on
June 2021: Club 27
July 2021: Freedom Fighters, Situs Inversus (note: Iām not completely satisfied with Situs Inversusā placement in summer, but due to Hokkaido being an extremely cold region and it being nighttime during the level, I donāt think the snowy conditions are impossible)
August 2021: Nightcall, The Finish Line
September 2021: Three-Headed Serpent, Chasing a Ghost
Mid/Late October 2021: Another Life (Iām basing this entirely off what people consider the best time for an idyllic Vermont autumn which is definitely what Whittleton Creek was going for)
November 13th: The Ark Society
November >13th: A mad dash across the H2 DLC levels and Hitman 3 that probably takes up most of the remains of November, ending with Untouchable in early December if I had to guess
Late 2022/Early 2023: Diana finishes dismantling international conspiracy, 47 finishes his vacation. Freelancer (presumably) begins
Under that timeline, assuming The Farewell still takes place in late November, Ken Morganās killing wouldāve been 5 months prior, which is still an understandable timeframe to say āa few months agoā instead of āhalf a year agoā.
As for the lore bible, I should amend my statement. They likely do have a document covering the narrative of the series & important characters, but IMO thereās very little chance they either always knew Club 27 took place in 2021, or that they consciously retconned it to deliberately compress the timeline for seemingly no reason.
IOI likely, at best, have things in timeframes by the approximate year/season. For most of the campaign, precisely how long X took has almost no effect on the narrative.
This is a crazy overcompensation for one line of dialogue probably written on someoneās 13th mug of coffee anyway, and this flies in the face of all common understanding of WoAās timeline, but I thiiink it works?? Maybe?
EDIT: Okay, I have figured there is an error in my timeline: Three Headed Serpent can also be dated thanks to the complied infographic, those statue posters stating the ceremonyās July 24th-30th. I think the timeline can still be compressed/shuffled to account for this while still having Ken Morgan die in June, if we say Freedom Fighters/Situs Inversus were also in June, and Nightcall/The Finish Line/Three Headed Serpent are in July. I think this might work better with the timeline as it allows the characters to breathe a little more and means we could say Another Life takes place in September after all, Chasing a Ghost gets to keep August all to itself, and 47 really does get a Halloween vacation
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The Showstopper happens in 2019 (I canāt remember the precise source confirming that but basically everyone seems to agree on that)
Its because 20 years after 1999 is 2019, and the game established early on a 20 year gap between the ICA testing mission and Showstopper.
Outside the game there was concept art with some of the fashion show material having ā2019ā labeled on it.
Showstopper takes place in the fall, hence the reporterās comment of fall fashion show. Meaning late September, anytime in October, or two-thirds of November of 2019 for the first mission. Give a couple of weeks to a month between each of the next three missions, approximately two weeks for Colorado (during which Patient Zero and first Sniper mission occur), letās say a week or two for Hokkaido, by now we are certainly in 2020, who knows how much time between Hokkaido and Hawkeās Bay, not too much time between that one and Miami or otherwise the Knoxes would have been dealt with before the race event (Sniper mission 2 takes place after Miami while ICA and Providence try to gather info on the SC), an unknown amount of time between the next 3 missions, Ark Society meeting is in November and thereās a two month gap before it (Sniper 3 takes place in this gap, as 47 and Diana still need to do work ICA sends their way while theyāre waiting to avoid suspicion that theyāre working off the books), then an unknown amount of time where the Constant is held hostage, then New York, then an unknown amount of time before they learn about Haven, that takes a day to travel, another day to get the info, then who knows how long for Dubai and Dartmoor (discrepancies in the dates of the Partnersā deaths are either errors by IO writers, or deliberately done to keep the timeline fuzzy, maybe even in-universe). Either way, by now we are definitely in 2021 for the remainder of the story.
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Not to be pedantic (ok, to be pedantic), Fall ends in late Decemberā¦just in time, actually, for the santa heist mission actually!
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Thatās right, my mistake. I kept thinking it was late November when winter begins.
Anyway, Iām pretty sure that Holiday Hoarders (is that what you meant by Santa heist?) takes place the Christmas before the main game begins; December 2018. Iām assuming the fashion show happens a few different times of the year and likely not the same month of each season of the year, allowing last yearās Christmas to have a show for the HH mission, but Showstopper taking place a little earlier in the fall for 2019, before thereās any Christmas decorations or preparations. This makes sense as Dahlia probably has information auctions often, and this would allow not only the Sarajevo Six to take place in the spring or late winter of 2019, a few months before the main game begins, but also Paris ETs, who were simply there in a different year, for a different show Novikov was throwing, and a different auction Dahlia was hosting. A lot of the ETās presence at times when the main games were taking place can often be attributed to simply similar events happening a couple years prior to the actual game events.
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Fascinating discussion, love to read such things.
btw. I donāt want to enter the debate, just a little thought I had: What if ā20 yearsā are just approximately? Of course, if it is not true why wouldnāt they use another number, but unlike 17 or 22 for example, 20 could be ā20-ish years laterā, like saying āhey 47, weāve known each other now for, what? 20 years?ā and it could be a bit more or less.