IO Interactive has gained some valuable insights into running real-time services with Hitman.
new Killer The game represents a large number of experiments by the developer IO Interactive. The original game tried a seasonal release format, making it the studio’s first live game.
“Hitman 2” and the upcoming “Hitman 3” expanded the real-time service, even though both games abandoned the reintroduced seasonal release model.
Before the release of “Hitman 3”, we had a conversation with IO Interactive to learn more about the knowledge the studio has learned over the years from operating real-time service elements, as well as its crazy methods in “Hitman 3” and so on.
Communications manager Travis Barbour said: “It may be, but it’s not certain.” “I don’t want to say that this is what we have to work harder for, nothing more – I think it’s a killer for us. Your career is useful.”
The argument also touches on the production side, namely how it allows the team to focus on a core set of mechanisms/locations/projects while dealing with other elements in the background.
Executive Producer Forest Swartout Large said: “I think this is a gift of concentration. It can prevent us from trying to sink it into the kitchen. It can be said that this is the current situation. It has not been released yet, but it will be developed.” .
“The gift of live service is also that it allows us to interact more with fans and the community in order to really listen. We can sort things out a bit and see how it goes… But when you publish the game and get feedback When the magic happens, then you can really see the effective and ineffective methods in it. Then, you will need to spend one to two years to make real iterations based on real-time feedback.”
Barbour explained that the idea of gradually releasing certain content and delivering certain parts over time is actually the result of the team experiencing Hitman Absolution, which is the last game in the classic style.
“I remember being on Absolution E3s at the time. At that time, we had a game designer who said that the way we made Absolution was that it was like a suitcase, filled with everything, packed it, and then managed to go on vacation, but you can’t Put anything else in this situation. If you try to change something, the whole thing will explode and all your clothes will be everywhere.” Barbour recalled.
“So we want to change how we make games from the learning process so that we can add or continue to play games. We finally got the current real-time model, but at the time, it was almost unheard of, especially for single player games. , And in such a large game, and got our attention.”
“Hitman 3” will be released on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on January 20.
