Hitman 3 will be an Epic Games Store exclusive on PC for a year

Image: IO Interactive

If you were hoping to play the last installment in IO Interactive’s Hitman trilogy on Steam, you’re out of luck. The developer has announced that the upcoming Hitman 3 will be an Epic Games Store exclusive on PC for a full 12 months.

In a statement, the studio said:

As an independent studio, our partnership with Epic has given us the freedom to create HITMAN 3 exactly as we imagined and self-publish the game to our players directly. It’s also important to us that we honour the time our existing PC players have spent in our previous games.

Fortunately, PC players will be able to carry over progression from Hitman 2 on Steam to Hitman 3 on the Epic Games Store. They will also be able to import all locations from Hitman and Hitman 2 to Hitman 3, if they own all three games. That’s more than 20 locations across the entire trilogy in one game!

IO Interactive also revealed a brilliant new location coming to Hitman 3: Dartmoor, England. Think of it as the mansion from Clue, or Knives Out - a massive manor in a peaceful countryside, where players will have to play the role of detective and piece together a puzzling murder mystery. That premise alone might make Hitman 3 worth picking up.

Announced earlier in August, Hitman 3 will also include virtual reality support for the first time in the franchise. And yes, that means you’ll be able to play all locations in the entire trilogy in VR. You’ll also be able to snag Hitman (2016) for free on the Epic Games Store from August 27 to September 3.

Hitman 3 will launch in January 2021 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Google Stadia and PC via the Epic Games Store.