Developer IO Interactive has announced a delay for Hitman World of Assassination‘s release on PlayStation VR2.
The upcoming VR release, which was first announced back in September, was initially slated for this December. It will now be released in March of next year.
IO’s global marketing director Jonathan Lacaille said the decision to delay was “not made lightly”, adding the studio understood there was “a lot of demand” for Hitman World of Assassination on PSVR2. However, the team wants to make sure it gets it right.
“Our priority will always remain to deliver an amazing experience that meets the high standards our players expect,” Lacaille wrote in a PlayStation blog post.
“The additional time will not only allow our team to polish the game, ensuring that every aspect is refined, immersive, and seamless, but also to add a few extras that we really wanted to include in this PS VR2 version, such as active reloading.”
Hitman World of Assassination – which comprises the rebooted Hitman 1, 2 and 3 games – will now release on 27th March. On its debut, it will feature all main levels from the trilogy, with dual-weilding support and other new controls and gameplay mechanics, such as “positional interactions”. This, IO said, will transform how players experience the World of Assassination.
“Rather than simply pressing a button to trigger events, players are required to physically mimic actions, such as toggling a TV on or off by touching the screen, hacking CCTV footage by tapping on a keyboard, or poisoning a glass by holding and dropping a vial over it,” Lacaille explained.
“This feature extends to opening doors, creating smoother and more natural interactions. Furthermore, quest items now remain physical and can be inspected in hand, allowing players to utilise them directly within set pieces – swiping a keycard or turning a lock in a door, for example.”
This won’t be Agent 47’s first foray into the world of VR. Earlier this year, XR Games released Hitman 3 VR Reloaded. However, it didn’t have the best debut, and soon after its release, the studio was the subject of layoffs.
For more VR news, earlier today we got a release date for Alien: Rogue Incursion.