Hitman Still Killing It, Io-Interactive Celebrating 5 Million Players

Io-Interactive no longer belongs to Square Enix. The studio was let go and moved on to become an independent entity, and when that happened, we were all concerned that Hitman might go down the drain. To our relief, Io-Interactive was quick to inform its fans and followers that it had fully retained the rights to Hitman, and now it’s back to let us know that the game is still doing incredibly well. In fact, over five million players have played to-date:

“HITMAN now has more than 5 million players! Thank you to our entire community for your continued support & making the game a huge success!” Five million players is a pretty huge milestone. We’re not sure if that includes anyone who downloaded the free trials of the opening missions or not, but we would assume so. It’s an impressive feat regardless, and one that bodes well for the future of the game. We’re still looking forward to a second season of content, and hopefully we’ll get to hear about that sooner than later.

If you never got the chance to check out Hitman, you owe it to yourself to do so. I don’t care what your original reasoning was for skipping out on this. Whether you thought that something called “Hitman” wouldn’t have a lot of depth, or you resented the fact that this was an episodic release, put all of your reservations aside and give this game a chance. It’s beautiful, it’s funny, it’s engaging, and it’s fun.

This was my first Hitman game and so I was blown away by the central progression loop. You see, the stages here don’t truly open up until you beat them at least once. It’s then that you unlock alternate spawn points, with alternate costumes, and alternate gear. These subsequent playthroughs are pure gaming bliss, and you’re encouraged to take out your enemies in the most efficient or else most creative ways possible. Make it through the Paris Showstopper mission at least, and I have a feeling that you’ll want to play through the entire game.