But Epic and IO are now working on a better solution.
Update: In a statement released yesterday, IO Interactive confirmed that, “we guarantee players will not need to repurchase the games.”
“We are continuing to work on a solution with our partners to allow PC players who own Hitman or Hitman 2 to import locations from those games into Hitman 3 at no cost,” it continues.
While there isn’t a solution at present, IO Interactive says players should take advantage of the Hitman 1 Access Pass while a Hitman 2 Access Pass is sorted.
Original story: Hitman 3 PC players may need to re-buy Hitman 2 if they want to import the latter’s levels into the new game on the Epic Games Store, IO Interactive declared over the weekend.
It’s a rather confusing state of affairs, with special Access Passes needed to play previous games’ content inside Hitman 3. Here’s how it boils down:
- Those who buy Hitman 3 on the Epic Games Store will receive access to the Hitman 1 GOTY Access Pass. The pass is available for free, for 10 days, to anyone who buys or has pre-ordered Hitman 3.
- Those who already own Hitman on the Epic Games Store will also receive access to the Hitman 1 GOTY Access Pass whenever they purchase Hitman 3.
Notice there’s nothing about the Hitman 2 Access Pass above? That’s because it won’t be offered for free whatsoever — at least, at present. For now, Hitman 2‘s Standard and Gold Access Passes will be offered at a discount of 80% for 14 days after Hitman 3‘s release. Final pricing details haven’t been disclosed as yet (and Hitman 2 itself isn’t available on the Epic Games Store, despite Hitman 3 being a year-long Epic Games Store exclusive on PC).
Once an Epic Games Store user has access to Hitman 3 and its Access Passes, they can choose to link their Steam account to their IOI Account for saves to carry over.
Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney has taken to Twitter in the aftermath of the news and has said he and Epic and working alongside IO Interactive to find a better solution to the problem.
“Sorry, the team is looking into this with IO,” Sweeney wrote. “It’s never Epic’s intent to create a situation where someone who owns a game on Steam would have to buy it again on Epic Games Store to get the full benefits of it.”
Needless to say, players aren’t happy about the current state of affairs.
“I’d just been weighing up whether or not to bite the bullet and buy [Hitman 3] on Epic,” wrote one user on ResetEra. “Guess I actually will be waiting until it hits Steam next year. It’s a shame because it really looked good, but I’m not rebuying all the stuff I already own.”
Hitman 3 heads to Windows PC via the Epic Games Store, Xbox One, Xbox Series S & X, PS4 and PS5 on 20 January 2021. We recently previewed the title here.
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Hitman 320 January 2021PC PS4 PS5 Xbox One Xbox Series |
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