Developer IO Interactive announced on Twitter today that Hitman 3‘s IOI Account servers have crashed on launch day, and the company is working hard to fix the issue to mitigate its impact on day one players. Hitman 3 is the latest and last entry in the World of Assassination trilogy, a series of reboot Hitman titles that helped refresh the character of Agent 47 and modernize the game.
IO Interactive’s work on the Hitman franchise has been well-received, and Hitman 3 continued that trend, with the game receiving extremely positive feedback when its review embargo lifted yesterday. Hitman 3 reviews near-universally praised the game’s environmental design, which brings six intricately crafted levels to life with a bevvy of assassination options. Hitman 3 will also carry over progression from previous entries in the trilogy, allowing unlocks from the prior games to come to the newest title. The synergy between the games is another selling point for a title that has succeeded in revitalizing the Hitman brand, and so Hitman 3 carry over progression is a major element of the new release and a priority for fans.
That’s why IO Interactive is so hard at work to fix an unexpected problem: According to the company’s Twitter, the IOI Account servers have crashed, which means progression carryover currently isn’t possible for Hitman 3 players. The developer put out two tweets, with the first playfully acknowledging that the team is on it and that “everyone wants to play at once,” but in the two hours that have passed since then, no fixes have been implemented successfully. The developer followed up an hour after the first tweet regarding the IOI Account servers being down, explaining it was still hard at work and that it will alert users on Twitter when the problem has been solved. The developer also asked players to refresh their Twitter feeds rather than the IOI Account page to help expedite the process and not overwhelm servers even further.
It’s terrible timing for IO Interactive, as Hitman 3 is coming off some exceptionally good buzz thanks to its positive reception in reviews. Hopefully the issue gets solved soon and doesn’t hurt what should be a launch period full of excitement for both the development team that worked so hard on the game and the players that are eager to see how that work has paid off. Hitman 3‘s status as an online game has been questioned by some, and it’s certainly hurting it now.
Screen Rant will update this article once servers are back online and IO Interactive has provided updates. If nothing else, perhaps the servers going down can be taken as something of a positive – if it’s because of an unexpected number of players looking to log on, that’s got to be a good sign for Hitman 3‘s long term prospects.
