Hitman withdrawn from sale on GOG

GOG withdrew Hitman from sale. The Bald Assassin joined the DRM-free digital store in September, but faced damning reviews. That’s because, while theoretically DRM-free, Hitman relies on online connectivity for many of its features to work. By taking the game offline, GOG apologized, saying they “shouldn’t have released it in its current form.”

Hitman’s shop page on GOG featured a warning at the top, which was reportedly added shortly after launch, stating that “an internet connection is required to access Escalation Missions, Elusive Targets, or Contracts created by user. Story and bonus missions can be played offline. ”

Users were quick to point out in dozens of negative reviews that an internet connection was also required to unlock new gear, departure locations, and outfits. These are pretty basic characteristics of Hitman’s excellent murder sandboxes.

“Thank you for your patience and for giving us the time to investigate the release of HITMAN GOTY on GOG,” GOG wrote in a forum post yesterday. “We’re still in dialogue with IO Interactive about this release. Today we removed HITMAN GOTY from GOG’s catalog – we shouldn’t have released it in its current form, as you pointed out.”

“We would like to apologize for the confusion and anger generated by this situation. We have let you down and we would like to thank you for bringing this topic to us – although it is honest to the bone, it shows how point you are towards GOG. ”

Following Hitman’s reception of so many negative reviews, GOG initially annoyed its community further by declaring that they would not tolerate “bombshell reviews”. They then clarified that only reviews that violate their review policy would be removed.

It’s yet another shame surrounding the recent trilogy of Hitman games, all of which are excellent but seem to stumble upon themselves at every opportunity. Hitman 3 – which is excellent and basically contains Hitman 1 and 2 – ruffled feathers at launch as it’s an Epic exclusive that didn’t perform well initially with the progress of previous games made on Steam.

Hopefully GOG’s ongoing conversations with IO Interactive mean that someday a version of the game will be available that is less dependent on an internet connection.