Hitman Bonus Episode July
A screenshot from the Marrakesh mission 'A House Built On Sand'. Square Enix

Shortly before this year's E3 trade show, Square Enix and IO Interactive announced that a special bonus instalment of this year's episodic Hitman game would be released in July, featuring two bonus missions revisiting the Italian and Moroccan settings from episodes two and three.

At the time nothing was announced regarding the game's release, which coupled with it being a "bonus" episode and revisiting old locations, caused a little confusion. Now however, a Square Enix representative has confirmed to IBTimes UK that the bonus episode will be premium, and sold in the same way as existing and future episodes.

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This means those who purchased access to every episode through the Full Experience or Upgrade Pack (essentially a season pass) will be able to download the bonus episode like any other. Other players however, will have to pay up. Someone who has purchased the Sapienza or Marrakesh episodes individually will not automatically be able to access the bonus episode.

It's what was expected, but at least it's now been cleared up.

While no pricing information was confirmed by the representative, each episode of Hitman released so far has been priced at £7.99, and this will likely be the same. The Intro Pack (with two tutorial levels and the first mission) costs £11.59, with the full experience priced at £44.99. If a player were to buy the Intro Pack and then want to upgrade, that'd cost an additional £36.79.

The bonus episode contains two missions telling the story of Agent 47's first assignments in Morocco and Italy. These will alter the maps significantly, and not just by setting them at night. Sapienza now houses an enormous, blockbuster film set, while this mission's Marrakesh will be far less busy and easier to hide in.

At the time of the announcement IO studio head Hannes Seifert said the bonus episode "allows us to show what we can do with Hitman as a live game," adding that is also "the perfect midway point in the Hitman season before the final three locations." Those final locations are set in Thailand, the United States and Japan – and will launch later in 2016.

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