GOG has admitted that they 'shouldn't have released' Hitman and has removed it from their store, following an outcry from players that the 'DRM free' game is, in fact, barely playable without a persistent internet connection.

The GOG version of Hitman came under heavy fire from the community after requiring an internet connection for single-player elements of the game such as leaderboards, user-created contracts, and the time-limited Elusive Targets. Perhaps more damaging is the fact that without an internet connection, you couldn't level up your mastery progression, which means you'll never be able to unlock new gear, add additional loadout slots, unlock new starting locations or get different pickup points. 

This essentially made a huge chunk of the game's content unplayable and caught the attention of GOG's community manager, Gabriela Siemienkowicz. In a new update, Siemienkowicz has confirmed that the game has now been pulled from GOG's catalogue, but that they are "still in dialogue with IO Interactive about this release."

We’d like to apologise for the confusion and anger generated by this situation. We’ve let you down and we’d like to thank you for bringing this topic to us – while it was honest to the bone, it shows how passionate you are towards GOG.

While the removal has been welcomed by many in the community, others are still annoyed that GOG's original response to the issue was to accuse fans of "review bombing" the game. 

The IO Interactive era of Hitman games are actually really solid entries, so it's a shame to see them fall down at such a simple hurdle. Arguably the restrictions are due to the way the games have been designed, but it would be nice to see games that are largely single-player in nature find a way to continue to work without requiring an internet connection at all times, if not for today, then for future preservation.