Last week came the news that Hitman, the next game in the hit third-person assassin game series, was being pushed back from December of this year to March of next year. With that announcement came the promise of more release details sometime this week. As promised, those details have now been shared.

As a fan of the series, it’s impossible not to be excited about a new game. That said, my personal excitement has taken a bit of a hit by the plan to release only a portion of the game at first and then release the rest of it later down the road. With this new information we know much more about how that will play out, including what you’ll get in the initial launch, what you’ll get in the post-launch content releases, and also prices (as it turns out, there will be more than one price option). You read all of the information and see a new infographic below.

Here’s all the information from the official Hitman website:

HITMAN RELEASE DETAILS

On March 11th 2016, we will release the initial launch content, which contains three locations – Paris, Sapienza and Marrakesh – featuring six campaign missions. For Contracts mode, you’ve got a combined pool of around 800 targets to craft your devious Contracts from, which means we’re expecting fantastic things.

Following March, we will release one new sandbox location per month in April, May and June. Each location will come with additional missions, signature kills and more Contracts targets – and of course new disguises, weapons and ways of taking out your target. April takes you to Thailand, May will see you visiting the United States of America and June sends you across the globe to Japan.

In addition, the live content will start in March. This consists of our live, time-limited targets, weekly IOI developed Contracts and promoted content built by the very best of you out there. Because, let’s face it, millions of you played and created fantastic Contracts for Absolution and we’re betting you’ll do even better this time around with so many targets and such complex locations.

THE INTRO PACK

Since we announced HITMAN at E3, we’ve had a lot of feedback on what we’ve revealed about the release model. Full access to the world of assassination will cost you USD $59.99 (or regional equivalent). For that price, you’ll get everything – all the content we’re planning on releasing, access to all live events and a secured spot in the HITMAN Beta, which will be available on PlayStation 4 and PC only. No additional costs at any time.

Today, with the INTRO PACK, we’re also giving you an additional option to jump onboard with just the March content – at a lower price point, of course. The “HITMAN Intro Pack” will also be available on March 11 2016, and will be priced at $34.99 (or regional equivalent). It includes all of the launch content, plus all Live Events and Contracts for the locations released in March 2016. Nothing more, nothing less.

Then, if you want to access the rest of HITMAN, you have the option to upgrade your purchase to include all the remaining content (and at the same time get access to all subsequent live events and Contracts across all locations). This will cost you an additional $29.99 (or regional equivalent). The upgrade pack will be available for purchase once the game has launched in March.

So it sounds like you’ll have the entire game by June, which isn’t too bad, unless they add more later. Still, I for one wish I could buy the game as a whole when it’s first released, especially being someone who much prefers having a physical copy. All of this is unnecessarily complicated, and a reminder of how frustrating games today can be. Make the game, release the game. If you want to release some optional bonus content not crucial to the main game’s story as DLC at later dates—or special contracts and limited time targets, in this game’s case—great. It’s as simple as that. At least it should be.

What do you think of this approach to releasing a game?

You can check out trailers and gameplay for Hitman if you haven’t seen them. The game can be pre-ordered for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

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