I am more excited about Hitman: Absolution than most games releasing this year. Will it be a mistake to release Hitman: Absolution so close to Black Ops II, Halo 4, and Assassin's Creed III? I think the game will sell but not as good as it should. I think they should scrap multiplayer if the game has one and release it in September before the huge rush of AAA titles.

I don't really think it's going to be suicide. Hitman was never destined to hit the same number of people as those games, but it's a niche for the market it knows it has. Fans of the franchise will buy it and indulge in some stealthy slaughtering, but I can't see it being a game for everyone. I will be picking it up, personally.

@xMP44x: I agree 100%. I wish they would release it earlier so they can make more money so we can see better and better sequels in the future.

Doesn't MS release their big games in September? I know the last couple Halo's and Gears 3 have come out in September.

I don't think so.

it's a different enough game than COD that it has it's audience and won't be forgotten.

People playing and purchasing Call of Duty and Halo probably doesn't even know what Hitman is in the first place.

Something else has to come out in November I guess. I think it'll do fine coming out then but I also wouldn't be shocked to see it slip to January or February, when all the other good games that don't want to compete with Halo and COD come out. IO is too small a company for them to be able to really ditch a project and I can't think of much else Square has coming out at the moment. If Hitman does end up getting completely over-shadowed, I don't think it will have been deliberate.

Personally I'm more interested in Hitman than any of the other games you listed. I know I'm obviously in the minority though.

Never bet against 47. He will kill everyone.

Unless in terms of sales, yes, he's dead.

@zombie2011 said:

Doesn't MS release their big games in September? I know the last couple Halo's and Gears 3 have come out in September.

Halo 4 is coming in November this year. I said September because its before the bigger AAA titles. Far Cry 3 and Borderlands 2 both release in September as well.

Hopefully it will pull a Saints Row 3, where it's different enough from the competition that they won't totally kill Hitman's sales. On the other hand, it's not actually that different, especially since they seem to be actioning it up more than in previous entries, at least as far as trailers have shown. Hitman: Absolution could probably sell as well as Deus Ex: Human Revolution (they're in roughly the same genre and both series started out as PC games), except Deus Ex: HR had the good sense to release in...August, I think?

Absolution won't do horribly in November, but it seems like a pretty bad choice overall because it really is going up against some pretty heavy hitters. I think it would've made more sense to either speed things up to release it in July-September, or to delay and release it in January when people are getting a little tired of Black Ops 2 and want to try something with a different pace.

I agree 100%. I wish they would release it earlier so they can make more money so we can see better and better sequels in the future.

Isn't it already dead?

no

Personally I have no desire to play Black Ops 2 or Halo 4. Been there and done that too much. AC3 looks interesting and I'll definitely grab Hitman: Absolution unless reviews and feedback are poor.

No, they're sending it to kill.

hitman has had some engaging marketing. it might do better than we expect

@SarjuTheRapper said:

hitman has had some engaging marketing. it might do better than we expect

I hope so... I have every intention of buying the game.

First of all I don't think IO doesn't make that decision. Second of all... pretty much.

It's not really in competition with those other titles.

The Hitman games have always been a semi niche games. A lot of players back then stayed away from them because of tedious gameplay mechanics and the Trial-and-Error aspect of the game. A lot complained about the shooting but the Hitman games were designed to be shooter and I know it's kinda overdone to say it by now but a lot of gamers just didn't get the appeal the Hitman games had.

Frankly I know very little about this game so for now it's in the maybe pile and I have zero intentions of buying the other games in the OP's list. Frankly the only game I am really looking forward this coming fall is The Last of Us.

I think The Last of Us will be a big seller but I don't see it releasing this year. I feel like Aliens: Colonial Marines, Tomb Raider, The Last of Us, and Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 will all get pushed into 2013 just like Bioshock: Infinite

@mordukai said:

The Hitman games have always been a semi niche games.

This, the game will do well on its own even with those other over bloated titles coming out. Personally i have no interest in either of them, well except i might get Hitman Absolution, just for the sole fact that its developed by people from my country.

I have played and finished all the Hitman games so far, but haven't liked a single one of them yet. I'm quite weird.

It's Square Enix, not IO and no.

There's more crossover between the BioShock crowd (which was moved to 2013) and the Hitman crowd than the CoD crowd. It's a month after Assassin's Creed.

It's all fine and well. They seem to want to give IO as much time as possible to polish it up...

Square Enix is sending it to die, not IO.

I wouldn't say they're sending it to die, but the game will receive significantly less attention. Halo 4 and COD come out 2 weeks and 1 week before this respectively, they will cannibalize sales. What will be most interesting is how much they cannibalize eachother's.

I have been told its Square Enix and not IO several times now. I made a mistake, regardless, it doesn't change anything about my post. The publisher funds the games and sets the release date. The game in my opinion has a bad release date...

It's funny that, of all the holiday releases I've seen so far, the one I'd be most likely to buy if they don't fuck it up is a new Hitman game.

I'm definitely in the minority, though.

To be honest I think like most people here, that the game will survive because of its own audience and that alone has alot to say.

Yes, Square Enix may be killing a little of what the Hitman franchise was. But I my opinion IO Interactive has done well with this one and I am proud that the biggest game developer in my country is IO after all. They try their best with the parameters they are given, despite they are less than 200 people on a game.

Step 1. Make new Hitman game.

Step 2. Put new Hitman game on store shelves at same time as games called "Call of Duty", "Halo", and shooters.

Step 3. Call of Duty and Halo copies are not available in store. Kid buys Hitman instead because name sounds cool.

Step 4. Kid actually enjoys awesomeness of Hitman game, tells friends.

Step 5. ???

Step 6. PROFIT!

This is actually a situation that would never occur. I'm just hoping that's the strategy they came up with.

I don't think so, I think it'll gather a bigger audience while not necessarily abandoning the fans interests, or at least I think that's the intention. For me personally, I think it's looking fantastic. I mean, I think the earlier ones are alright, but this just looks better to me. More importantly, your Dead Space icon is good. Only because it's Dead Space, and Dead Space is great.

Yeah, releasing it in november is a big mistake. Fans of the series will probably buy it, but there's a lot more chance of attracting more people if the game was to be released in the early or late summer. People without stuff to play might give it a shot, when they'll probably won't do that in november, when they'll buy AC3/BO2/Halo 4/The Last of us

Yes it's a mistake, that doesn't mean you can't buy it and enjoy it.

Let us se if it will make it to november, and not february?

If it was an original IP, maybe. But it is established. The people who like Hitman will buy still buy it. I don't think the time of year this comes out will effect their sales negatively.

They definitely are. Look at Diablo III and Max Payne: completely different games, yet one still managed to overshadow the other.

@FritzDude said:

People playing and purchasing Call of Duty and Halo probably doesn't even know what Hitman is in the first place.

Why do you assume such? I like Halo and (well, did) like Call of Duty, so why just assume that?

Anyway, I don't think it's going to "die" because of its release date but I think that this game could do better with either a much later or much earlier release date. Unless you're Bethesda or DICE, it doesn't seem like releasing next to a CoD game is a good idea.