Call me lazy if you want but I don’t think someone should need to look up a guide on how to buy a video game without feeling scammed. I feel like I’ve been seeing this more and more lately with abstractly named tiered bundles, complete editions that don’t contain everything, and remasters of games that feel like they should have been updates.
I’ve listed a few examples below but can you think of any others?
Examples:
The photo I attached is a buying guide for Hitman 3. A game that still confuses me. For those that don’t know Hitman 1 and 2 can be played in Hitman 3 but the game is sold in bundles. I believe part one contains missions from the first game but the standard edition, the next level up, does not contain all the levels for Hitman 2 but does have all the levels for Hitman 3. The deluxe edition has all of Hitman 2 and a good chunk of the small DLC like cosmetics and challenge missions but not all of them.
Before Hitman 3 was rebranded as World of Assassination I believe you could avoid repaying for the games you already own (at least on Steam) but I don’t think that’s the case any more.
So as someone who owns the original Hitman I believe I essentially need to rebuy it as part of the deluxe edition if I want to play Hitman 1 and 2.
Intravenous for example was released in July 2021 and from my understanding is being remastered with features from the sequel, Intravenous 2 (released August 2024), as a DLC for the sequel under the name Intravenous IV2.
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When I saw the title my brain immediately went “Hitman” before I even read the rest of it lol.
I own the first two, but I haven’t bought the third one because I literally don’t understand the process of how you’re supposed to buy it.
At this point, I can only assume they they don’t want people to purchase their game for some reason.
I’m speculating, and certainly not a business expert, so heaping handfuls of salt comes with this statement: I think part of the problem that led to this is that each game was published by a different entity. Square published 2016, then put the devs up for sale the following year, citing underperformance. IO buys itself out and becomes independent, but needs capital to get Hitman 2 across the finish line. Enter a publishing deal with Warner Bros. That game proves successful enough that Hitman 3 is able to be self-published.
Considering IO’s concept of this World of Assassination trilogy was always that it would have certain online-only or live servicey features, and I assume that publishers often provide the necessary infrastructure for these things, I wonder if the rotating chair of publishers is to blame for making this process so much more obtuse than it needs to be.
That’s definitely part of it. I remember when 3 was being presold, they were saying if you own 1 and 2 you could play all of them in 3…but then that wasn’t totally true because of licensing issues on the Steam platform.
Of course their current naming system with different versions of WOA is still confusing as hell, and they do not make it clear what is or is not included with any of them. That’s completely outside of any licensing issues.
Calling that Hitman bullshit “confusing” is way too charitable.
Not too long ago Steam listed something called “Hitman 3” (they changed it now).
Imagine my surprise when it turned out to include only the game launcher, without any actual content that could be reasonably called “Hitman 3”. If you tried to start a mission they redirected you to buy it first…Thank god for the refunds…
Ballsy for a game company that has a fan base comprised of assassin enthusiasts.
If the image quality is horrible like it is for me here is the direct link.
I know this is too simplistic a view but… if you run into this issue, don’t buy anything.
If you really want to play that game still, sail the high seas.
100% this. Played quite a bit of hitman on the high seas version. One day I decided I was gonna buy it on the next sale (around the time freelancer mode came out since I figured I enjoy it enough and updates would be easier). Oh boy! Their pricing model is garbage and the “sale” makes it seem way cheaper than it actually is if you want the whole game. Gave up on buying after that.
if you run into this issue, don’t buy anything.
I played and loved all of the Hitman games up until the World of Assassination trilogy because I couldn’t figure out what edition to get and all of the different editions felt like a cash grab.
Warhammer Total War, the series where DLCs feed forward to the new title.
Elder Scrolls Online, there is a base game, a sub that does not include the base game or expansions, an expansion upgrade and expansion editions, and content that are not technically expansions.
Warhammer Total War, the series where DLCs feed forward to the new title.
Love the game, but you’re right. It was actually going to be worse at warhammer 3’s release. Creative Assembly was planning to gatekeep the biggest campaign behind owning previous games. They caved under public pressure fortunately.
These graphs are the best counter to games have cost $60 for a decade argument.
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Rereleases and remasters can be a hurdle. I was thinking about playing a Final Fantasy game about a year ago but got caught up in the pros and cons of each version and what games are connected.
From my understanding most don’t continue on the story but I believe one of the games has a character return, I think it’s Cloud, and I think seven was remastered and separated into two games.
Did you mean something else though? Like I said I haven’t played them
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I don’t play a lot of big budget games where this kind of thing tends to happen. Probably the worst experience I’ve had has been thanks to confusion caused by multiple remasters.
Age of Empires 2 released in 1999 with an expansion in 2000. It was rereleased in 2013 as the HD Edition on Steam.
Then it was rereleased again as the Definitive Edition in 2019.
And I have seen people get confused and buy the HD version when they meant to get DE. Not quite the same as the OP because it’s not caused by malicious anti-consumer bullshit. But that’s the closest I’ve been.
They have retired the HD version now, I believe.
Oh, so they have. I dunno what that means precisely. I think I saw they stopped selling the old AoE3 version, but last I checked AoM EE and AoE2HD were still for sale, but deliberately greyed out and renamed to make it clearer that they’re the old versions. Not sure if they’re still for sale or not as of now.
Hitman really is a mess, according to EGS i own Hitman 1 and Hitman 3, but i doubt i really own Hitman 3, probably is a starter pack with the first chapter as i dont think the full Hitman 3 has been given away? On top of that you enter at the shop page and everything is such a mess that i just dont have any will to install the game and try to uncover what i own and what i dont nor i have any will to pay for something that im not sure what im buying and if im paying for something i have already.
They really fucked up the PC release for that game. I think there was a period where Hitman 2 and Hitman 3 were exclusive to different store platforms, and they had to publish a guide to link everything together with an account.
EGS gives out so many freebies, that I wouldn’t be surprised if you snagged Hitman 3 in that and just forgot about it.
a period where Hitman 2 and Hitman 3 were exclusive to different store platform
It was a yearlong Epic Game Store exclusive despite the publishers promising not to do that, and when they finally released on Steam there was a bunch of issues for people who owned H1 and H2 accessing their levels/progress in H3.
Fully agreed. This kind of thing drives me nuts and other people act like I’m crazy.
I don’t want a “base” game for $70. I don’t like the idea of spending so much and still missing content or cosmetics that in previous generations would’ve been unlockable in the game. It’s frustrating and disappointing.
The recent Space Marine did it and turned me off. Stop giving me tiers of products. It’s fatiguing!
Soon as they started with the whole “seasons” thing I checked out.
I’m old now, if I can’t just buy the fucking game I’m not buying it.
Kind of only tangentially related but if you bought FF7 Remake originally on PS4 there is a way to claim a free upgrade to the PS5 / Intergrade version. But it was so well hidden in the online store I had to watch a youtube video to figure out where to find it.
Final Fantasy XI. It wasn’t necessarily difficult to get the game but creating an account and subscribing was very painful (and still is). In a weird way, it served as a filter for those who probably wouldn’t enjoy the game anyway.
I don’t think someone should need to look up a guide on how to buy a video game without feeling scammed.
there goes all NFT/crypto games lol.
I loved the Hitman games when I was younger, but somewhere around Hitman Absolution, I just lost interest because of this. They renamed this, resold that, combined this with that.
Last time I downloaded something, it was to try it in VR when it said there was a VR patch. I couldn’t do anything. I found out later, it’s only for PSVR 1 and only on PS4 with the camera and a dual shock 4 controller that has the light bar for tracking. Literally nothing explained that anywhere.
It’s an absolute mess and a shame.
