Sometimes a franchise gets bogged down with all entries having similar names. That’s why one prolific game series is rebranding. IO Interactive is taking its famous title Hitman 3 and changing its name to World of Assassination. For convenience, IOI will also add the previous entries of the new Hitman trilogy under this banner. Soon, players will be able to purchase all three games under one name. Here are the details.
Hitman 3 and the World of Assassination
Hitman has been a household name since it first appeared on PC in 2000 by IO Interactive. As it developed into a series, it didn’t follow a traditional naming pattern. That trend continued for years before IOI released a whole remade trilogy for the series. However, the confusing conventions remained, especially when locations were shared between games.
For ease of purchasing, organization, and searching, Hitman 3 — which released in 2021 — will be rebranded as World of Assassination. The package also includes Hitman (2016) and Hitman 2 (2018) locations as part of this new brand. This means those game will no longer be available for individual purchase. Thankfully, those who already own Hitman 3 will receive an automatic update adding in the additional titles.
With such a simple title, Hitman gained a lot of attention for its complexity. It was one of the pioneers of open-ended gameplay that gave players a variety of options. The games introduce a number of scenarios or missions where the player needs to eliminate a certain target. However, the path is never a straight line with players having a multitude of options to complete their objective. They can go in guns blazing, set up a variety of traps, or constantly switch disguises to get close enough the subtly take out the target. With the new trilogy, an online component was added allowing players to create and challenge each other’s custom scenarios.
The new Hitman trilogy remains one of the most popular, and clearly named, aspects of the series and now will become even more so. With all the games becoming packaged as World of Assassination on January 26th, Hitman 3 will continue to lead the series.
