{"id":46383,"date":"2025-09-06T22:55:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T22:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T22:55:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T22:55:52","slug":"bringing-hitman-to-vr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing Hitman TO VR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

When it comes to Hitman VR, IO Interactive owes a lot to the game Firewall: Zero Hour, the PlayStation VR game from First Contact Entertainment.<\/p>\n

As Eksil M\u00f8hl, a senior game designer at IO, tells it, the studio’s interest in VR started two years ago with his coworker Oliver Winding, a senior writer at the company. One day, Winding approached M\u00f8hl, asking him to come over. He wanted M\u00f8hl to try out his new PlayStation VR. M\u00f8hl was taken with the system, going out and buying his own as a Christmas present to himself. And that’s when he played Firewall. Like Winding, M\u00f8hl wanted to show off the PlayStation VR headset. He took it to the IO office, showing his coworkers, and having them play Firewall. As luck would have it, people at IO Interactive shared his enthusiasm, including lead game designer Sidsel Hermansen, who recalls that people at the office “couldn\u2019t stop playing.”<\/p>\n

“We just had to play, play, play,” Hermansen says.<\/p>\n

This past August, IO announced<\/a> it was bringing the World of Assassination trilogy to the PlayStation VR, updating the first two games, Hitman 1 and 2, to support the technology, as well as developing the upcoming Hitman 3 with VR in mind. According to M\u00f8hl and Hermansen, it was the excitement the studio had over games like Firewall that led the team to making its own VR mode for Hitman.<\/p>\n

Within IO, the Hitman VR team is small \u2013 only 10 or 12 people plus QA. It’s a low headcount, especially considering three games worth of content is being updated to support an entirely new way of play, but IO isn’t building a new game from the ground up; it’s updating existing software. One of the surprising things the team found when beginning its work on Hitman VR was, even though none of the previous games were made with VR in mind, the levels that were built naturally lent themselves to the new perspective.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s environment art, it\u2019s the character art, it\u2019s sound design \u2013 sound design, I get goosebumps just thinking about it, the sound design is so f—ing beautiful,” Hermansen says. “The A.I., even the systemics as well, it just works.”<\/p>\n

“And we found s— like one of the levels 47 has to pick up this USB stick. It\u2019s an intel item, something you pick up and you just go, \u2018Bloop!\u2019 The prompt is like this big,” Mohl adds, gesturing the size of a thumb drive. “So in VR you can go in and actually look at it like this,” he puts his face close to the table he’s sitting at, “and some weird guy or girl has made the most insane USB stick. Like, the little light on it and a little wrapper around it that\u2019s sort of dirty. It almost had fingerprints on it.”<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/article>\n

Another thing M\u00f8hl brings up are the guns in Hitman. When they started working with VR, they assumed they’d need to go in and add holo-dot sights for aiming in first person. Despite the fact Hitman games are in third-person, whichever artist modeled those guns had already done that for them.<\/p>\n

The Hitman games are already, to some extent, about roleplay; players can choose how they want to assassinate their targets, down to what outfits Agent 47 wears and what items he uses. Bringing these games into VR amplifies this. It brings out people’s personalities, Hermansen says. Some people will play super cautiously. Others will take every opportunity to mess with the world and bother NPCs.<\/p>\n

“[If] you\u2019ve played Miami [in Hitman 2], there\u2019s an underpass with a guy playing the drums,” Hermansen says. “And he\u2019s like a street musician. And there was this one day where I was like, \u2018I\u2019m going to play around a bit,\u2019 and I realized I could f— him up. I could pull his hands away \u2026 I would take his hand up and then,” she begins mimicking the motion of a hand falling down on a drum. “There are so many awesome surprises, where it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, this is just in there. What the f— is going on?\u2019”<\/p>\n

One thing that is very different in Hitman VR is the way it reduces your distance from the game’s violence. By design, virtual reality eliminates a lot of separation a player has from what’s happening on screen, effectively tricking your brain into thinking you’re really in this location doing these things. The Hitman games can be brutal; there are ways to kill people that are extremely violent. It’s something the team says it thought about during the making of Hitman VR, and while it has changed some kill animations in the game to better fit VR, it hasn’t changed any of the game’s content. That said, players may take it upon themselves to make their experience less bloody, if Hermansen and M\u00f8hl\u2019s experiences are anything to go off of.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/article>\n

“We have a ton of different faces and stuff, but when you\u2019re in VR you notice, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s that guy!\u2019” M\u00f8hl says. “He\u2019s also being used over here. And he\u2019s also the butcher in [Hitman 2 level] Sapienza. I remember I had to do something brutal to somebody, and Kurt was there and I was like, \u2018All right, I\u2019m going to kill him.\u2019 But he was like, \u2018Hey!\u2019”<\/p>\n

“\u2018Hey, how\u2019s your day?\u2019” Hermansen replies.<\/p>\n

“Yeah! Then I was like, \u2018There\u2019s no way I can kill him now,” M\u00f8hl adds.<\/p>\n

“In that way, it actually feels more personal, the stuff you do,” Hermansen says. “If you f— up, if you have to murder some innocent civilian, then for me, personally, I feel pretty bad. I\u2019m not going to do that again. Like, next time I\u2019m going to do better, because it\u2019s on me to be a good assassin. Because it\u2019s so much more personal and intense, and it feels like I\u2019m the one stabbing some poor woman with a knife.”<\/p>\n

Talking to the Hitman VR team, there’s an infectious excitement behind everything they say. In the course of just an hour, I went from being not particularly interested in\u00a0Hitman VR to Googling how much it’d cost to buy a PlayStation VR setup. Considering Hitman 3 is the first game IO is releasing since it became an independent studio, it’s easy to get the impression this is a passion project for the small team; a labor of love made within a larger company.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s always fun to make games \u2013 oh my god, not always, that\u2019s bulls—; it\u2019s also sucky sometimes \u2013 but I think because us as game designers and them as gameplay coders, we like to do new s—,” Hermansen says. “Everyone gets super excited. The coders also got super excited, like, \u2018We could do this!\u2019 and \u2018Actually, we usually wouldn\u2019t go there, but aw, f— we have to do it,\u2019 right? So that excitement has really driven us and we\u2019ve done much more than should be possible on a relatively small team because of the excitement. I don\u2019t know if that was surprising, but it\u2019s been a beautiful thing.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to Hitman VR, IO Interactive owes a lot to the game Firewall: Zero Hour, the PlayStation VR game from First Contact Entertainment. As Eksil M\u00f8hl, a senior game designer at IO, tells it, the studio’s interest in VR started two years ago with his coworker Oliver Winding, a senior writer at the company. One day, Winding approached M\u00f8hl, asking him to come over. He wanted M\u00f8hl to try out his new PlayStation VR. M\u00f8hl was taken with the system, going out and buying his own as a Christmas present to himself. And that’s when he played Firewall. Like Winding, M\u00f8hl wanted to show off the PlayStation VR headset. He took it to the IO office, showing his coworkers, and having them play…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-informer"],"yoast_head":"\nBringing Hitman TO VR | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When it comes to Hitman VR, IO Interactive owes a lot to the game Firewall: Zero Hour, the PlayStation VR game from First Contact Entertainment. As Eksil\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bringing Hitman TO VR | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When it comes to Hitman VR, IO Interactive owes a lot to the game Firewall: Zero Hour, the PlayStation VR game from First Contact Entertainment. As Eksil\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-06T22:55:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/bringing-hitman-to-vr.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"Bringing Hitman TO VR\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-06T22:55:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1224,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Game Informer\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\\\/\",\"name\":\"Bringing Hitman TO VR | Arcader News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-06T22:55:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"description\":\"When it comes to Hitman VR, IO Interactive owes a lot to the game Firewall: Zero Hour, the PlayStation VR game from First Contact Entertainment. As Eksil\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":270,\"caption\":\"Bringing Hitman TO VR\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bringing Hitman TO VR\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"description\":\"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Arcade News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cricketgames.tv\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/author\\\/arcade-news\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bringing Hitman TO VR | Arcader News","description":"When it comes to Hitman VR, IO Interactive owes a lot to the game Firewall: Zero Hour, the PlayStation VR game from First Contact Entertainment. As Eksil","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bringing Hitman TO VR | Arcader News","og_description":"When it comes to Hitman VR, IO Interactive owes a lot to the game Firewall: Zero Hour, the PlayStation VR game from First Contact Entertainment. As Eksil","og_url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/","og_site_name":"Arcade News","article_published_time":"2025-09-06T22:55:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":270,"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/bringing-hitman-to-vr.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Arcade News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Arcade News","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/"},"author":{"name":"Arcade News","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"headline":"Bringing Hitman TO VR","datePublished":"2025-09-06T22:55:52+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/"},"wordCount":1224,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/bringing-hitman-to-vr.jpg","articleSection":["Game Informer"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/","name":"Bringing Hitman TO VR | Arcader News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/bringing-hitman-to-vr.jpg","datePublished":"2025-09-06T22:55:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"description":"When it comes to Hitman VR, IO Interactive owes a lot to the game Firewall: Zero Hour, the PlayStation VR game from First Contact Entertainment. As Eksil","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/bringing-hitman-to-vr.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/bringing-hitman-to-vr.jpg","width":480,"height":270,"caption":"Bringing Hitman TO VR"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/bringing-hitman-to-vr\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bringing Hitman TO VR"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/","name":"Arcade News","description":"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839","name":"Arcade News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Arcade News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/cricketgames.tv"],"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/author\/arcade-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1315350,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46383\/revisions\/1315350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}