Dear IOI,

I will try to restrain myself and not make this into a "hate" mail, although I am furious.

When you released the first Hitman game back in 2000, I knew I was playing something great. The atmosphere, the story and the way it looked all worked perfectly. I don't need to elaborate on how the next installments were even better, each one greater then it's predecessor.
It actually seemed that Hitman was a series that will only improve and become a shining example to how a game franchise should be properly made.

All that changed when that horrible movie came out. I remember thinking "finally, a Hitman feature film is about to come out!" In your games, you wisely modeled 47 after a talented actor who had both the look and voice for the part. Instead of casting him for the film, you chose Timothy Olyphant. You had Pacino, but chose to cast Jon Lovitz for the role of The Godfather. The script sucked too. It missed the entire feel of the game and was very shallow.

A new Hitman game was announced a few years ago, and I believed it will correct the damage the movie had done to my favorite series. But you've done it again. David Bateson is dropped, Diana's voice is replaced, the brillaint Jesper Kyd is also removed from the project, and after seeing that 16 min gameplay movie I can only say this: you've managed to kill Hitman.

Yes, it looks better than ever, but everything else is just wrong. It doesnt play like a Hitman game, it doesn't sound like a hitman game and it doesnt FEEL like a Himan game.

I read this today and it made me almost want to quit playing games altogether (Source:http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/18/47-is-back-ios-blystad-on-bringing-back-hitman-with-absolution/):

“One of the things that was difficult with the old games was that there was a lot of freedom, but you really had to dig it out, it wasn’t really presented to you at all. So you could start a level and there was ten doors open to you and was like, ‘well, where the hell am I supposed to go? I don’t know, I’ll just have to try the first door, oh I got killed, now I’ll try the second one.’

“That kind of freedom is not very interesting because it’s not really a choice, but you just try it and then you see if you fail and then you try something else. Now, you’re very mindful to present choices to the player that might be more binary in a way because there are physical choices, but in the level. There is also [inaudible] choices of how you want to play through it as a player, based on, ‘do you want to be a silent assassin or do you just want to get through the game and have a good storyline and experience?

“We’re catering for a large spectrum of players from the most-ultra hardcore to the people who play third-person games and they enjoy that and they just want a good experience.”

Basically, what this fool is saying is: "People are fucking stupid nowadays. If you present them with too much freedom they get confused and it translate badly into sales. So we cater our games for those mindless sheep so they would finish it effortlessly by being held by hand. Ohh! And we also say that we cater it for hardcore players like we care for them but we don't (more money from lazy slackers!)."

I'm writing you this e-mail to try to understand why you have done this? why fix something that's not broken? Why are you ruining one of the best game franchises ever created?

Regardless of your answer, you have lost me as your customer today. You have proved that corporate greed rules the gaming industry, and while only a handful of game developers stay true to their form, you've sacrificed the heart of your company and it will be your undoing. After all, the first sign was those awful Kane & Lynch games.

Sincerely,

A very disappointed long-time customer.

Hello disappointed

Thanks for your email. We are sad to hear that you are taking this so poorly but we obviously respect your views. Let me just comment on a few of your views below.

First, if you have any issues with the film that was made by Fox, you should really take it up with them. We didn’t produce the movie and had nothing to do with casting of actors and so on. This is a basic principle of licensing and only in rare cases do you get to have a say about things like that – much like script writers don’t get to dictate who directs, produces or stars in the films based on their work. Second, David Bateson was, and still is, completely unknown in the US, which is the market the movie was made for. Had he gone for a casting, which he might have, I don’t know as I’m not his agent, he might have been dropped regardless since he’s first and foremost a voice actor, not a live performance actor with the same amount of experience as many other potential candidates. Comparing Bateson with Pacino also seems a little ambitious, to be honest.

Regarding the new game, IO is making the best Hitman game we are able to and it will certainly be the best one so far. It is extremely close, in many aspects, to the original vision of Hitman, which we were not able to support in 2000, since tech simply wasn’t as advanced as it is now. If you feel differently, perhaps the game is not for you this time around. Things change, including games, and we’ve created four very similar Hitman games that have evolved slowly over time – now it’s time to try and evolve that formula even more. Perhaps this will throw off some old fans, which is obviously a shame, but much like writers, musicians, artists and craftsmen, we like to continuously evolve. If we lose some of the fans in the process, hopefully they will eventually understand what we’re doing and come back at a later point. If not, we’ll manage.

Regarding the interview, I believe you’re missing the point here. Trial and error gameplay can be fun in some instances and for some people but a lot of gamers do not like to go blind into things. They like to make informed choices, even if they have to work for that information, and all the testing we’ve seen with this game as well as the old games tell us that. Are we trying to hit a wider audience? Of course we are. We’re not in the business of creating expensive games that don’t sell so we’re forced to close the company. We would love for as many people as possible to try Hitman and actually enjoy the experience – that has nothing to do with mindless people. If you feel you are superior to the common gamer because you enjoy extremely difficult games, you will find yourself limited to a few titles every year. Saying we don’t care for the hardcore players is just nonsense as I believe we’ll show with this game.

I suggest you take a deep breath and have a look at the game when it comes out next year. Maybe you will still be displeased then but maybe not. We’re working hard to preserve all the key aspects of the Hitman DNA – choice, freedom, fun, stealth. If you choose to disagree – that’s fine.

Kind regards

Nick