Square Enix Game Now Available for Free for Some Nintendo Switch 2 Users for Limited Time
A Square Enix Hitman game is now available for free for some Nintendo Switch 2 users, but only for a limited time. More precisely, Nintendo Switch 2 users who want to download the Square Enix game for free from the eShop have until November 4. This free download is the result of a free upgrade path. That said, you don’t need to actually own the game to claim the free upgrade. Anybody can claim it. Without an upgrade path, the Nintendo Switch 2 game costs $40 on the eShop. And after November 4, the upgrade path won’t be free, but $10. To this end, it’s best to claim the free upgrade now, even if you don’t own the game, so you can get the Nintendo Switch 2 version in the future for $10, plus the price of the Nintendo Switch version, which is both $10 cheaper and more likely to go on sale. While you don’t need to own the game to get the upgrade, you do need to own the console.
As for the Square Enix game, it is the 2012 stealth-action release from IO Interactive, which owns the game and IP in 2026. In other words, Square Enix released the original, but is not involved with this new re-release. This new re-release is specifically for Hitman: Absolution.
For those unfamiliar with this release, it is the fifth installment in the Hitman series and the follow-up to 2006’s Hitman Blood Money. It was also the final mainline release in the series before it was rebooted in 2016 with the release of Hitman. Upon release, it earned a Metacritic range of 79 to 83, with scores varying from platform to platform. And it sold appreciably as well, moving nearly four million units, a solid return, but a return that ultimately fell below Square Enix’s internal expectations for it, hence why the series was rebooted four years later.
A Good Entry Point Into the Series?
While a follow-up to Hitman Blood Money, Absolution is not a sequel. It is a completely standalone game, which means it can also serve as an entry point into the series, though an odd one. It’s the final game in the old style of Hitman games. The 2016 reboot changed the formula, and future games in the series are likely to follow this formula rather than revisit the past. How many more games we will get in the series in the near future, with IO Interactive seemingly not focused on 007, remains to be seen.
Those who do decide to check out Hitman: Absolution should expect a game that is about 12 to 20 hours long, on average, primarily depending on how much side content is engaged with. That said, completionists will need closer to 35 to 40 hours with the former Square Enix game.
If this Nintendo Switch 2 game doesn’t tickle your fancy, there are similar free upgrades recently made available via the Switch 2 eShop, including a former Game of the Year winner.