Hitman 3 goes on sale, then off sale, in Epic's Lunar New Year Sale

pcgamer.com:

There was expectation, or at least a sense of hope, that Hitman 3 would get a hefty discount in the Steam Lunar New Year Sale that kicked off today. Many fans were unhappy about the game launching on Steam at full price last week after a year of Epic Store exclusivity, and have been expressing their discontent with negative user reviews; the reaction was strong enough that IO announced earlier today that anyone who purchases the game on Steam prior to February 19 will be upgraded to the next-higher edition for free. The price remained unchanged, however.

When the Steam Lunar New Year Sale began, Hitman 3 was still the full price of $60/£50/€60. That didn't go over particularly well with gamers, who expressed their disappointment in the Steam forums. But the situation was complicated by the fact that the price did go down on the Epic Games Store, which launched its own Lunar New Year Sale today, by 50%.

My first thought was that the Steam price change was simply delayed: The initial crush of bargain hunters means discounts can sometimes take awhile to appear on store pages when a Steam sale first starts, which is why you'll occasionally see games listed on the front page of a new Steam sale with no discount applied. But as more time passed, it became apparent that the Steam release wasn't going to be put on sale.

Then things took another turn. About an hour after Epic's Lunar New Year Sale began, the discount on Hitman 3 was removed without warning—it was returned to full price on Epic as well as Steam. That leaves things where they currently stand, with no sale price on Hitman 3 on either of the two major digital storefronts.

IO Interactive hasn't commented on the situation yet, but one theory is that Steam's pricing