Hitman 3 Closes the Book on the World of Assassination Trilogy
IO Interactive's self-published Hitman 3 launches today across every major platform, wrapping up the studio's rebooted assassin trilogy.
Agent 47 wrapped up his current storyline today. Hitman 3 shipped from IO Interactive on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Stadia, closing out the “World of Assassination” trilogy that started with the 2016 reboot and continued through Hitman 2 in 2018.
What makes this release notable beyond just being “the next Hitman” is who’s putting it out. This is IO Interactive’s first self-published title in the series after the studio split from Square Enix as publisher. That’s a real gamble for a mid-sized studio — publishing means owning marketing, distribution deals, and platform relationships that a company like Square Enix used to handle. IO clearly bet that the series had enough of a built-in audience to make the jump worthwhile, and early critical reaction suggests that bet is paying off.
Why critics are calling it the best of the three
Reviews landing today are unusually consistent in praising the level design and stealth mechanics, with plenty of critics saying this is the strongest entry in the rebooted trilogy. If you’ve played the first two games, you know the format: sprawling sandbox levels stuffed with NPCs, disguises, opportunities, and a dozen different ways to eliminate your target without anyone noticing. The series has spent five years refining that formula, and by all accounts the polish shows.
There’s also a structural piece worth mentioning for anyone who’s been following along since 2016 — IO has built these games to let you import your progress and unlocked locations from the previous two titles, effectively letting the whole trilogy function as one continuously expanding sandbox rather than three separate purchases. That’s a smart way to reward longtime players without forcing them to rebuy content they already own.
Stadia’s inclusion is also worth a note. Google’s cloud platform hasn’t exactly been drowning in day-one AAA releases, and getting a high-profile launch like this onto Stadia alongside every traditional platform is a small but real signal that publishers are still willing to bet on cloud gaming as a legitimate release target, even as the format’s long-term traction remains an open question.
For a studio that took on the financial and logistical risk of self-publishing, a well-reviewed launch across six platforms on day one is about as good an outcome as IO Interactive could have hoped for. Whether that translates into strong sales numbers is the next thing worth watching — self-publishing only pays off if the studio actually captures more of the revenue than a traditional publishing deal would have delivered. For now, though, the trilogy that started five years ago has a proper ending, and reviewers seem to think it’s the series’ best work yet.