Delayed/Staggered distribution

Another growing trend in industry are games with episodic release dates. Telltale games is probably the most well known studio when it comes to episodic gaming as their range of games have become the most successful and critically acclaimed in the genre. This is because Telltale design their games from the ground up to be episodic and the main advantage for the studio is that the can use the time in-between releases to address weaknesses in the previous entries in the series and take feedback from the community like in early access or open beta games but instead of gamers being able to play everything available at the time, its in short instalments. 

Another benefit from this distribution is that gradual release spreads out income so it becomes regular instead using the income from a single release.

Telltale in particular use their release model to manage multiple IP's. Last year for instance Game of Thrones and Tales From The Borderlands released in between each other.

Now for the bad stuff.

Hitman is traditionally a AAA single player game designed to be one experience start to finish, however the next game in the franchise will be released in large level expansions after the initial prologue mission. It has garnered a lot of suspicion that the developer IO Interactive had not intended this originally but Square Enix, their publisher, demanded that they release it in an episodic format after their recent success with Life is Strange. This was clear not the intention of IO and actually a result of Square Enix's predictions on how the market would change after the end of the last console generation. Square Enix were under false pretences that traditional AAA would die out in favour of mobile, online only and the PC. When the market did the exact opposite with games like the single player games like Bloodborne and The Witcher 3 selling consoles and the market generally booming, like it was going to anyway. Games like Just Cause 3 were criticised for having an odd single player when the reality of this was Square Enix pushing Avalanche for a multiplayer only experience then changing their mind after seeing. In Square Enix's mad panic to get back on track the publisher looked to episodic releases as a way to maximise profits by applying the business model to games that wouldn't originally work as episodic games. Hitman and the upcoming Final Fantasy 7 remake will both be released incrementally. Publishers changing their minds on a whim is a serious problem for developers as it can disrupt progress and can even make up to years of work useless.

• Episodic/Staggered Release dates.
• Telltale is the most well received and successful studio currently making Episodic games. 
• Telltale design their games to be episodic and narrative driven.
• They use the time in between releases to improve upon future episodes.
• Episodic releases allows them to balance out multiple IP's within the same time frame.
• Game of Thrones and Tales from the Borderlands.
• The release schedule allows for regular income to back up their multiple projects.

Cons:

• Hitman is now episodic and never was before.
• Square Enix had bad predictions on how the market would change after the last generation of consoles ended.
• They thought that the market would turn to mobile, online-only and PC.
• When this didn't happen they thought episodic gaming was the future.
• Now Square Enix is attempting to apply this model to their AAA Franchises.
• Just Cause 3 was originally intended to be a online only game.
• Square Enix changed their mind mid way through production making it a single player, yet retaining the DRM.
• Hitman was also planned to be an online-only experience but is now being released in instalments.
• This kind of behaviour is becoming increasingly common among large publishers.
• It puts unnecessary stress and restraints on the developers.

Quotes:

• 'It gives you more control over the pacing and the player's experience'
• 'Another benefit is that you can change things according to the players’ feedback' Luc Baghadoust, producer of Life Is Strange
• 
  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VysWXsuGPHQ Information on square enix

http://www.thejimquisition.com/2016/01/why-square-enix-is-carving-its-games-to-bits-the-jimquisition/

http://gamerant.com/indie-developers-episodic-games/ 

http://www.redbull.com/uk/en/games/stories/1331743857254/life-is-strange-interview

http://www.destructoid.com/square-enix-long-console-generation-a-big-mistake--231048.phtml