Square Enix planned to keep it guarded through an online pass system, but has decided to garrotte it and drag his corpse off into the bushes. This means its open to anyone, including you know whos.
Initially it seemed only the US was to be made exempt from the online pass, but now EU and other territories have been included, although the code needs to be used.
US copies will see the Contracts Mode on the menu from the start, whilst others will need to either activate the code they got in the box or simply opt to 'buy' an online code with no charge. "We'd actually planned to have this mode accessible via a code in the game's box, but we really want to make it available to anybody that plays the game - so we want to take a new approach," publisher Square Enix said via Tumblr.
"If you’re in North America you’ll see the mode automatically appear in the game menu. If you’re elsewhere, you can redeem the code inside the box, or you can simply select the BUY CONTRACTS PASS option. From there, head to the store where CONTRACTS will be free to access."
"The only thing you need to worry about then is just how challenging your CONTRACT will be."
Hitman: Absolution releases on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC November 20th.