We knew Hitman 3 DLC was on the horizon, and IO Interactive has unveiled their content roadmap for February. Beginning today and throughout the month players can look forward to diving into new contracts, escalations, and, of course, elusive targets.

February 4 - The Baskerville Escalation

Not a fan of the Carlisle family? Well, this escalation challenge tasks you with returning to Thornbridge Manor to take out the entire clan. The catch: they can only die from accidents. 

February 11 - MinnMax Dubai Featured Contracts

Return to Dubai to take on custom (and banana-centric) objectives concocted by those rascals over at MinnMax. 

February 18 - The Sinbad Stringent Escalation 

This unique escalation challenges players to...throw knives at swinging boxes? Sounds weird, but IO teases some sort of surprise for what’s inside the box, so it sounds like we’ll be sharpening our knife-throwing skills to find out what that is. 

February 23 - Game Update/Kinda Funny Dartmoor Featured Contracts/The Proloff Parable and The Gauchito Antiquity Deluxe Escalations 

This is a stacked day as players can expect a big update as well as featured contracts created by the folks at Kinda Funny set in Dartmoor. (note: the trailer states that these missions go live on the 25th but we confirmed with IO that KF's contracts will indeed be available on the 23rd). 

Owners of Hitman 3's Deluxe Edition can enjoy two deluxe escalations. First up is The Proloff Parable. Set aboard a train in the Carpathian Mountains, players don White Shadow ninja garb, White Katana, and White Sieger 300 sniper rifle to eliminate targets within a time limit. The second escalation, The Gauchito Antiquity, is all about poisoning your targets while donning the Guru suit. 

February 26 - March 8: The Deceivers Sapienza Elusive Target

Hitman 3 gets its first elusive targets in the form of the Deceivers. Set in Hitman 1’s Sapienza map, players have 12 days to eliminate the two targets before they vanish from the game.  

Sounds like a fun month ahead for an already great game. For more on Hitman 3, check out our glowing review of the game here. We also have a handy guide for obtaining the game's best disguises. 

Amazon founder and long-time CEO, Jeff Bezos, is set to step down from his position this summer. Andy Jassy, a highly-respected leader in the company, responsible for Amazon’s successful cloud computing presence, is currently the conglomerate’s incumbent CEO and has already announced a commitment to the production of more games.

Last year, Amazon pulled the plug on Crucible, a hero shooter that just couldn’t secure a dedicated player base or widespread publicity despite its three multiplayer modes and sizable roster. In that same breath, however, Amazon revealed Luna — a new cloud gaming service that looks to rival Stadia. But serious issues within the company’s Game Making Division were illuminated in January when Bloomberg covered the toxic, misogynistic culture that took place at Amazon Game Studios. 

“Four female game developers say their worst experiences of sexism in the industry were at Amazon," states the report. "They shared stories of being ignored and undermined by male executives and say they were eventually driven out of the company." In addition to these issues, many development teams were understaffed and neglected. 

According to an email sent to Bloomberg by Amazon Game Studios head, Mike Frazzini, the company has no tolerance for dangerous or demeaning work cultures and will work to combat such claims, “We’ve learned and improved a lot along the way, myself included, and we will continue to do so.” Similarly, incumbent CEO Andy Jassy voiced that despite the studios’ less-than-ideal journey to this point, there is still success waiting on the horizon. 

How do you feel about Amazon's foray into the ever-growing world of game creation? Do you believe that the newly appointed CEO will make much-needed changes to workplace culture and the game development process? Make sure to sound off in the comments below. 

[Source: Bloomberg via IGN]