IO Interactive Reveals 'Hitman: Game Of The Year' Bundle

If you haven’t picked up the new Hitman game, you might want to wait until November to get it. IO Interactive announced that it will release a Game of the Year version with a plethora of new content.

On top of all of the missions, contracts, and challenges from Hitman season one, the new $60 bundle will also include a new campaign called “Patient Zero.” As Agent 47, you’ll take on four new missions and take out your targets to prevent a deadly virus from breaking out. The targets are in four familiar locations—Bangkok, Sapienza, Colorado, and Hokkaido—but the developers changed multiple facets of each level by adding new opportunities, challenges, and enemy behaviors. Once you finish the campaign, you can sharpen your skills even further with new Escalation Contracts, which require you to kill targets with increasing difficulty levels. You’ll also get three new disguises and accompanying weapons.

If you already own a copy of the original batch of episodes, either by purchasing each installment individually or through the Intro and Upgrade packs, you’ll have to pay $20 to access the “Game of the Year” content. The same offer is also extended to those who purchased the original Complete First Season bundle.

Even if you don’t get the new variant or the standalone purchase, you’ll still benefit from a free update that arrives on the same day. Contracts Mode will have a new “Trending” tab so you can see the most popular missions, and it also includes new condition settings so you can add an extra layer of challenge for your custom targets. The studio is also bringing back its Elusive Targets mode, which gives you one chance to take out a specific mark. If you already completed the tasks earlier this year, you’ll get an in-game coin to commemorate your efforts. The developers are also working on a new UI and “visual style,” lighting improvements, and implementing Tobii’s eye tracking software for the PC version.

Earlier this year, Square Enix decided to sell its ownership of IO Interactive due to the company’s “extraordinary loss” in the previous fiscal year. However, the studio was able to negotiate a management buyout with Square Enix, which allowed it to not only become a fully independent studio, but to also retain ownership of the Hitman franchise. Since the change in ownership, the studio hasn’t skipped a beat in terms of adding more activities for fans. A quick look at its news page shows that content updates are still coming on a monthly basis. The release of the Game of the Year package in addition to the return of the Elusive Targets next month is a sign that IO Interactive is still going strong as an indie studio.