Hitman becomes ‘fully episodic,’ here’s what that means

Square Enix has announced yet another change in Hitman's release format, confirming today that it is now considered a "fully episodic AAA game.

"A change to the release structure, sees HITMAN become a truly episodic AAA game experience, with a major live component. Where players will perform contract hits on powerful, high-profile targets in exotic locations around the world," the publisher said in a statement today.

We've known for a while that the game will not be released in its entirety at launch, but Square was a bit vague on the terminology and what it considered to be "episodic." Basically, the difference now is you can purchase missions individually as opposed to just buying the game up front and waiting for the content to be delivered.

The Prolgoue Mission and Paris location will be available on March 11th, followed by the next location, set in Italy releasing in April. A Morocco location will release in May. From there, Square Enix and Io-Interactive will deliver regular monthly content updates, including three additional locations for five total: Thailand, the United States, and Japan until the season concludes in late 2016. Weekly live events and additional planned content will arrive between the monthly updates.

Under the new release format, Hitman will see a new Intro Pack — containing the Prologue and Paris levels — release at the price of $15. Each subsequent locations will be priced at $10 and released as an add-on item to the Intro Pack. Alternatively, you can purchase the Full Experience up front for $60; this will include all of this year's content as it's released. If you purchase the Intro Pack first, but decide later on to get everything the Full Experience offers, you can buy the Upgrade Pack for $50 (note: this would total $65, or $5 more than the Full Experience pack alone).

Those who fancy the physical disc will need to wait until the end of the year, although an exact date has not been set in stone as of yet.

Square Enix also addressed PlayStation users, promising access to The Sarajevo Six — 6 Bonus Contracts, one of which will be released with each location, that will see Agent 47 travel the world in pursuit of six former members of a paramilitary unit called CICADA. This is considered a self-contained side-story that will be exclusive to PlayStation 4 users.

The Hitman beta is still scheduled to start on February 12th for PS4 and February 19th for PC. You can pre-order the Full Experience or the new Intro Pack to guarantee access. The beta will not be available on Xbox One.