Sometimes, for whatever reason, some bad apples in the community feel the need to take out their frustrations on others. In 2019, reports showed that 74% of adults experience online harassment in games, including physical threats and stalking. Some even target the fan base outside the gaming sphere as well, which is what happened with the Hitman Subreddit,. The result of which caused the moderators of the forum to temporarily make it private, after it transpired that some users were the subject of "targeted harassment."
While the Hitman Subreddit is up and running again, after being unavailable for a few hours recently, a post by one of the mods issued a statement about why it went private for a brief period. The reasons given have to do with the aforementioned harassment, as well as a "security breach" which rendered the sub difficult to moderate. The original poster went on to say that developer IO Interactive had no input on the forum going down temporarily, and while things have returned to normal, the post iterates that "harassment and vitriol" is not welcome, though constructive criticism is.
While no details were given as to what type of harassment was being received, and who was targeted specifically, it's been suggested that the recent Hitman 3 Steam review bombing fiasco may have something to do with it. It seems that some fans are not happy with the business practices of IO as well as many criticizing the implementation of the VR mode. At the time of writing, Hitman 3 currently has a review rating of "mixed" on Steam, with nearly 300 negative reviews. For comparison, the first two games are showing as having "very positive" scores.
The Hitman Trilogy recently got VR support on PC, and while virtual reality modes for popular titles seems to generally be a good move, take Resident Evil 4 VR for example, it seems that some have voiced their dislike of how the studio has handled it this time. One of the other aspects that fans have taken umbrage with is the fact that the game was full price on Steam upon release, despite the fact that it had been out for a year on Epic Games Store.
As one of the best stealth franchises in gaming history, Hitman has been experiencing something of a resurgence since 2016's reboot. It's a shame, therefore, that some in the community are feeling they have to take action against those who are lashing out at people not responsible for the game in any way.
Hitman 3 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.