Hitman 3 won’t have Ghost Mode, Hitman 2 servers shutting down

Hitman 3 developer IO Interactive has detailed the modes that will be making their way over from Hitman 2, and it’s looking like the final chapter in the “World of Assassination” trilogy will be a strictly single-player affair—at least at launch.

Ghost Mode, Hitman 2‘s 1v1 competitive multiplayer mode, will not be returning to Hitman 3, and its Hitman 2 servers will shut down on August 31st. IO Interactive said in a recent blog post that it has “learnt a hell of a lot from Ghost Mode over the last two years and we’ll be taking all of those learnings onboard for what we do in the future with regards to multiplayer.”

Sniper Assassin will sort of be making a return to Hitman 3 as well, though it can “be played in existing maps as a single-player experience only.” This sounds like players will be able to access Sniper Assassination missions from previous games via Hitman 3, but it doesn’t look like there will be additional Sniper Assassination missions in the sequel. As with Ghost Mode, IO Interactive is “preparing to sunset the co-op servers in Hitman 2 before the launch of Hitman 3 and we’ll share an exact timeline and a solution to the mode’s multiplayer trophies in the coming months.”

Thankfully, the bulk of the Hitman experience will be returning for Hitman 3. Modes to be included in Hitman 3 are the Campaign, Elusive Targets, Escalations, and Contracts. Additionally, IO Interactive stated that it’s “making some changes to the Elusive Target formula that we’ll reveal at a later date” and that Featured Contracts will be returning to Hitman 3 as well.

We still don’t fully know what the settings will be for these game modes. So far, the only location that IO Interactive has revealed for Hitman 3 is Dubai. The main focus since the game’s announcement has been Hitman 3‘s VR mode, which is confirmed to be launching with the game on PlayStation VR. IO Interactive has not yet stated whether the VR mode is coming to PC-based VR as well.

Hitman 3 launches in January 2021 for Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.