Honestly a better trailer would have been the nuns blowing up the building and him just walking away since he snuck past them. They pull out cigarettes and congratulate themselves - only to hear him drive off with their bus.
But why do I think that would have been banned because of the cigarettes?

IO Interactive should not have apologized for anything. by apologizing you are admitting that you have done something wrong or that you were in the wrong and what have they done wrong? nothing in my view you have a fictional character killing a bunch of ridiculous dressed fictional characters. People will argue that it is depicting "Violence against women" too which I reply "really are you going with that argument?" look at it this way if this was a live-action movie trailer for some action flick staring say jason statham or a scene from like Transporter 4 chances are no would bat an eye at it or give it a second thought, but being that it is from a video game changes the thing entirely! why? my guess is because of the children. people are not thinking of the children and as the saying go "Won't someone please think of the children!" this game will be of course rated M (for people 17+) but that does not stop the Moral Guardians who excuse the pun "scream bloody murder" over the content of this video and want it ban or what not. By attacking this and running for the torches and pitch forks you are in effect supporting censorship and stifling creativity.
below is a link that deals with violence in video games and talks more about a different video game series but I think it makes some very valid points related to this topic
http://thqletter4svr.blogspot.ca/2011/07/whos-to-blame.html

@SJ - the very argument you put forward that there is nothing wrong with choosing to a) depict nuns as sex toys and b) then killing them all, is a perfect example of just how desensitised we gamers have become to violence. Was the trailer cool - yes the CG was cool. Was the subject cool - hell no.

IO, 47% of the gaming demographic are women. What on earth were you thinking!

Um i hate to tell you this but I am a Woman.
and I have no problem with this at all it doesn't both me. someone another page was screaming "this is blatant sexploitation!! rawr! I'm not going to take it any more!" and went when on to say "It doesn't even make sense. What kind of assassin would dress like
that? How much attention are they trying to draw to themselves?" and I told them the above post and included the following:
"This is your argument? your trolling is ineffective. but I'll play now let me see.. I didn't know it had to make 100% sense. the " demure innocent Nun" I thought that was more of a disguise when they were walking towards the building I mean come on who is going to bother a bunch of nuns? then as they get closer to the building they are reviled for what they truly are some crazy outlandish hit squad.
Also what kind of assassin dresses like that? does it really matter? you clearly have hate for Nuns and Fetish wear..so would it make any difference if they were dressed like Ninjas or clowns or nurses? maybe they should be all wearing burqas? or would that offend you more?
sure I guess you can look at it in a sexual aspect but that is not how I seen it
I seen the humor in the actual thing as in this is a ridiculous situation this guy is in.

Look at it this way would you be so angry if the roles were reversed? where Agent 47 was a woman and she was set upon by a bunch of gun toting priests in tight leather outfits
and she started tearing thought them?"

I see it as all very tongue-in-cheek people are having a big fuss over nothing. Do you even know the framing of this clip? The main villain could have picked up the phone and be all "get me the Convent!" which is the name if this super badass assassin group that dresses like nuns. That could be how it goes maybe not we don't know yet. but also the press this one clip is getting is raising the games popularity it raising awareness of the game and is making it controversial and a wise man once said "controversy creates cash" chances are this game will sell do it being controversial.

SJ - thank you! I wish people would stop speaking out for all "females". There are a number of extremist idiotic people, who just happen to be female, who consider it their birthright that they are identical to all other females, and all female representations in all media reflect them.

What are the people complaining about? Women are not allowed to be sexy? Women are not allowed to be violent? Women are not allowed to be killed in video games?

If anyone else said these things it would be branded as extreme sexism, but clueless people are doing it all the time. Sadly it seems to be mostly women making these claims (I said mostly) and it is ridiculous.

I don't stand for you. You don't stand for me. We are individuals. The fictional characters in that trailer don't stand for you, they are individuals who made their own fictional choices.

I would like to see one real argument made by anyone on this aside from "it is violent towards women" - I mean they would have to state - WHY they think it is, and how it should be changed, for it to be a real argument. You can't just say this is bad, you have to say why.

It is a disgusting state of affairs, there is a vacuum of understanding about gender issues which are being exploited for attention by a group of extreme ignorant people who will cry foul at anything that does or doesn't contain women. Women get shot? Sexist. Women don't get shot? Sexist.

About the only thing they like right now is a short haired protagonist in figure masking clothes. Pathetic.

I wasn't offended I'm 35 years old and I haven't been offended by a darned thing ever, besides atheists. I actually thought it was the best trailer at E3 even better than Halo 4's!

In a word: good.
That trailer is creepy, inappropriate to the series, and full of shoddy martial arts cliche`.
As classy goes that trailer is sub-Leisure Suit Larry, and if that's how Hitman:ABS ends up rolling it's likely to haunt Square-Enix for quite a while.
This is the kind of shit that hampers video gaming as a whole. This is the counter-example to any claims of artistic merit and maturity: bald bland power-fantasy man murders porn nun squad.
Hitman: the intersection of Rapelay and Chiller.
In HD.

It is understandable that IO would apologize if some people are offended. True art will inevitably embarras or offend someone, whether they are the creators or the viewers. You can't live on planet Earth and never be offended or challenged by anything.

That said, I am surprised by the reaction to this trailer. It isn't THAT bold considering all that exists in media. Personally I just love violent females in games. I wish there were more high quality blockbusters rivaling the Halos and GoW's that featured tons more women with guns and swords, be they half naked or not. I don't care what they're wearing, I just want to see them as part of the action.

This is unrelated, but I always wanted to see a game that takes place in a fantasy/matriarchal universe where women are the main aggressive and competitive gender, gunning each other down and whatnot. That would be awesome.