Next week, the Hitman series is more than ready to welcome a major milestone. The franchise is celebrating its 20th anniversary on November 20. That’s two decades of excellent gaming along with other forms of entertainment. Today we take a quick look at the journey.
Everything started back in 2000 with the release of Hitman: Codename 47. It was here that everyone was introduced to the assassin known only as Agent 47. What excited players was that while each level and mission appeared to be linear, it was possible to accomplish missions in a number of different ways.
Since then, the series has released seven major games and had Agent 47 travel to six continents while also taking on more than 100 missions. The initial series offered a total of five games from Hitman: Codename 47 all the way to Hitman: Absolution. Absolution in particular introduced Contracts. This is an online option which allowed players to come up with their own missions and then have other players try to complete them.
After that, the franchise introduced what is now known as the World of Assassination trilogy. The first, Hitman, was released in 2016 with the sequel being launched in 2018. Hitman 3 was initially announced during the PlayStation 5 reveal event back in June. One difference is that compared to Hitman 2, this upcoming version is not going to have any multiplayer modes.
Hitman 3 is scheduled to be released on January 20, 2021 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia. Versions for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S are also set to be launched. Pre-orders are now being accepted and you can learn about that here.
It hasn’t been all video games, as the franchise has become a multimedia brand. It has had two full-length films. The first was Hitman, which released in 2007. A sequel was initially planned, but was later cancelled. Instead, a reboot titled as Hitman: Agent 47 was released in 2017. There have also been two novels along with a comic series.
There have also been spin-offs in the form of games released for the mobile platform. There’s Hitman Go and Hitman: Sniper, both available for the iOS and Android.
Overall, the franchise has reached 70 million players in its lifetime. In a statement, IO Interactive said that in honor of the 20th year, they’ve “lined up some moments of celebration that will enable us to reflect on what we have achieved over the years and to look ahead at what’s to come in Hitman 3.”
We’re excited with what’s going to happen this month. What about you? Let us know in the comments section below.
