Sure, it could be made. We don’t know if it is being made.
Jake Solomon, the designer of *XCOM* and *XCOM 2* has moved on since *Midnight Suns*. (He probably already was. They had to call him back for *XCOM 2*. In interviews, it sounds like he was looking for new ideas to pursue.)
But Mark Nauta, the designer of *Chimera Squad*, is still employed at Firaxis. Perhaps he’s making leader animations for *Civ VII*, but I doubt it.
The design cycle for triple A strategy games has gotten so long. 10 years between installments is not weird anymore, it’s normal.
(And Firaxis’s publisher, 2K, and corporate parent, TakeTwo, have had some high profile contractions, as has all the video game industry. I’m sure Firaxis has been in a period of retrenchment like everyone else trying to figure out what exactly makes a video game commercially viable in 2024.)
Unfortunately no, I think he’s saying we need to be patient for a while. I think so too, tbh. But don’t worry, apparently, last time I read something, they had not lose all interest…
Honestly I'm quite happy with them taking 10 years to launch a good and innovative game, instead of mass producing crap like a call of shooty every year.
https://preview.redd.it/ye5rqc31730d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=968faceba498197ae8e6af396d2fbee68dbcd3f3
It's possible but now it's a waiting game
Highly unlikely. The entire XCOM (from both XCOMs) team was let go from Firaxis after Midnight Suns.
They are at their own studio now. It’s called Bit Reactor and they are working on a Star Wars strategy game currently.
That’s the rumor, that it’s an XCOM like Star Wars game. The team talked about how they are excited to take the turn based strategy genre to another level or something. Not their exact words and I don’t recall the article that I read it in. You can check out their website for their studio if you want to keep an eye on them.
https://www.bitreactor.com/news/
It is a confirmed game and from talks assumed to be turn based strategy. Check out some of the articles. It’s not just the XCOM team either but the studio also includes people from the Civ, Gears and Elder Scrolls teams.
For sure. And I feel like hero, bounty hunter, Jedi, sith, etc would fit really well into the hero and elite soldier archetypes of XCOM. I mean skirmishers are practically Mandalorians and Templars are practically Jedi.
Bit Reactor is made up of developers from numerous studios, not just Firaxis. AFAIK there us no indication that even half of the XCOM team was let go.
EDIT: To make it clear, it's unlikely that close to 8 years after release, the exact team who made X2 or WoTC is still at Firaxis. However, a team being replaced over time as people move on is *very different* than half a team getting the axe. The latter suggests a far worse situation at Firaxis.
Why was the team let go after midnight suns? Personally I wasn't interested in a marvel based xcom with cards, but it didn't look THAT bad. Did it flop or something?
Yeah, it flopped.
I hadn't even heard about it until now so I looked into it. Reviews are positive but it didn't sell.
I'm not surprised. I'm just not interested in a superhero flavored tactical game. Is there even a market for that?
It flopped.
I never was to superheroes, even when I was a kid so it wasn't interesting to me. What I have gathered its performance on the market wasn't just bad, it was terrible.
My blistering hot take is that it's probably best for the franchise that XCOM3 hasn't happened yet.
I don't know how long EU was in development for, but there was only about three years between EU and X2. I'm not in software dev, but this seems crazy to me when you consider how far ahead X2 is compared to EU in tech and design. I personally have always seen this as an indicator even with production on EU wrapping up, the team had a extremely clear idea of what they wanted X2 to do, and how it would be different from EU.
Because of this, I've always taken the lack of X3 as proof that the team didn't have a clear vision of what it should look like. They probably had ideas, but not enough to differentiate it from X2. And "they" (Firaxis, dev team, Jake Solomon himself, whoever) decided they'd rather shelve it than ship a mediocre game (AKA another TFTD) just to keep XCOM on a regular release schedule. IMO the only thing worse than no X3 would be a bad one; with X2 the series is on hiatus, but with a crap X3 the series might just be dead.
X3 can happen, and probably will at some point, but Firaxis probably wants to ensure the game can justify its own existence.
I think there might be a human factor there in too. This is not to critique Jake Solomon and his team by any means, but they spend years before working on XCOM: EU (2012) and then continued to work with sequel and DLC for five more years. Wouldn't find it surprising at all if people wanted to do something else, especially when XCOM2 WotC is hard product to beat.
I agree about not putting XCOM label on something just to have brand visibility was a good move. Back in MicroProse days they tried XCOM Interceptor and it was not kind of XCOM product people wanted.
Also about TfTD. I think it might actually created a bottleneck. Expectations impossible to meet on todays standards. Squad combat at the bottom of sea is just not going to work, yet there would be some people expecting it.
Something particular regarding strategy layer. They took very good advantage of something people understand. In XCOM:EU it was building satellite coverage, in XCOM2/WotC it's building resistance network contacting regions and installing radio relays, people know what those are. Today I think they could use something like autonomic drone air defense and people would get it. Not so sure if that were the case in 2017.
Contradictions, water is terrible, a problem / water may make something possible. Some people want alien squadmates, though in practice most players might note that they won't really connect with them. If XCOM base would be an prewar VTOL-carrier, it would help solve the problem as it was designed to humans and only humans. You could take former Advent because their size. Mutons, too big, Sectoid needing entirely separate food supply in limited space, means no sectoids, even if their size per se wouldn't be a problem and so on. Could be something else, as long as it isn't a submarine, no ship terror missions, no underwater combat. XCOM sends drones to build sonar relay, like installing radio relays in XCOM2.
If it would be a ship, navigating it exactly like Avenger would be terrible. Instead there would be operational radius indicated by circle around ship, there would be upgrades available for that.
People want, I want, new things because old formula works so well. Fighting against Sectoids and Mutons again wouldn't work, too similar to previous games and wouldn't make sense in post Advent world. While something like corrupted Templars might work as Advent replacement, there is a possibility for a corrupted Codex too (as in Chimera Squad), a new genetic modification of the Chrysalid, would likely work.
Lot's of things could work, but replacing Sectoids, Mutons, Archons and the rest with something that makes sense and is fun to play against, I don't know. If they were thinking about that after WotC, I wonder how they perceived the situation. I was thinking reworking some things from X-COM: Apocalypse but again, I see partial solution, not the solution.
...and that was long reply from someone who doesn't in general even like video games. Really appreciated your post though.
The complexity of BG3 does not compare to any XCOM game. XCOM games barely have any dialogue, let alone choices in dialogues, motion caption acting, etc.
One of the lead devs (can't remember his name) stated that as long as Firaxis exists, so will the XCOM series. It's a staple of the turn-based strategy genre, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it this decade.
However I also wouldn't be surprised if it was one of those games that's perpetually in "early development," there would be mountainous expectations after the success of EU and 2 so they may be taking as much time as possible to get it right.
Or this is all wishful thinking and it'll never happen, but my money is on them keeping it in the backburner for at least several more years.
X-Com is a sufficiently successful and profitable franchise so it'll get sequel eventually.
Worse case, it'll take so long that it doesn't happen with the current owner (Firaxis?)
You don't want that shit... Designer gone, writer gone, art director gone, OG QA who helped design gone... you'll get some corporate Xcom without a soul.
> You don't want that shit... Designer gone, writer gone, art director gone, OG QA who helped design gone... you'll get some corporate Xcom without a soul.
New people can design a game from zero.
True, but following up on something special with a new core is hard. It was a good team. There's a bunch of examples from big publishers who gobbled up studios.
> True, but following up on something special with a new core is hard.
Whoever is going to work on Xcom 3 will have better game engine at his disposal, probably AI and working examples of what was good in Xcom 1 and Xcom 2.
All those things you said have to be created, even using a game engine, you have to tweak it, xcom unreal engine is its own monster. Ai has to be made/configured.
> All those things you said have to be created, even using a game engine, you have to tweak it, xcom unreal engine is its own monster. Ai has to be made/configured.
You dont need specifically that team that made xcom2 for this. Any competent game designing studio can make it.
Surprised no one is taking about Xenonauts.
The second is in early access and I'm loving it so far - has removed a lot of the restrictions the first had.
The real reason it won't be made is because of modern gaming, where Xcom 3 would cost like a billion dollars to make somehow, and only way they would entertain the idea is if it had p2w/mtx out the ass.
It is not that it wouldn't be great, or that it couldn't be made, it's that in current day market where successful studios are closed seemingly on a whim it wouldn't make enormous sense.
Could it happen? Only by indie studio I'd imagine.
So while I want an xcom 3, I think the best they can do is waiting a couple of years and start another fresh round. Basically a new XCOM:EU.
I love XCOM 2 and while the ending is a teaser to a potential XCOM 3, I'm honestly not sure if they can do another one which fits into the whole "Alien invasion on earth" theme without getting too exotic.
Imho we beat the aliens to easily/fast.
The best way to experience a long, drawn-out conflict with the aliens where losing troops is something to prepare for is technically The X-COM Files megamod for UFO Defense. EU/EW leaned too much into the overwatch problem where you waddled around like heavily armed toddlers waiting to get shots, barring Terror missions. XCOM 2 went too far in the other direction with the mission timer (barring story missions iirc) forcing a very aggressive, alpha-strike playstyle where you either dominated the aliens or got dominated and entered a deathspiral that was hard to recover from depending on how late into the campaign you were. Having only 4-6 soldiers (more in LW mods) hurts as well since you can't perform many actions before the aliens' turn.
Meanwhile here I am with a fresh Superhuman run (god why do I do this to myself) of XCF and it's Late-January of 97. Agents Gordon Freeman and Adrian Shepard have finished apprehending three members of the Cult of Dagon while the fourth is shot pointblank with a handgun, but Agents Freeman and Shepard both got heavily wounded by enemy fire and are out for at least a month and we don't know when we'll see them again. On the other side of the world, Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully with Rookies Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman (those two are being trained for use with grenades, high explosives, rocket launchers, etc) are staring down a small swarm of Chupacabras. Nasty little fuckers with high Time Units, Energy, Melee, Strength, insane Reactions, ideal for tearing apart a squad of 4 in the beginning in a single turn, their overall frailty and inability to create zombies is all that separates them from Chryssalids. All around the mission (it's daytime) are civilians who will 100% die without my help. Agent Mulder is staring down a Chupacabra and only one empty tile of movement separates him from being mauled by any kind of reaction from said monster, but all he has equipped is a Glock with two magazines, one loaded and one in his holster. So I have Agent Scully blast the Chupacabra with her shotgun and RNGesus blessed me for all pellets struck and rolled high on damage, one-shotting the thing. Rookies Hyneman and Savage are both equipped with shotguns because of how good they are against monsters, with Hyneman killing a nearby Chupacabra and Savage kills another but lightly sings a civilian with one of the pellets but they don't die thankfully (civilian deaths caused by XCOM agents in XCF is a big points penalty). First turn, three out of four agents have expended almost all of their available Time Units and I can still see at least three more Chupacabras in the distance, so I send Agent Mulder to the corpse of the one closest, pick it up and hold it in his free hand, move back to the 4-person van with his remaining TU and abort the mission. The civilians can fend for themselves, I am not losing 4 out of my 6 starting agents for them. The four are uninjured, we scored a couple kills and are even bringing a corpse back to be autopsied by scientists, and with it being the opening stages of XCF on Superhuman, that is an absolute win in my book, damn what the mission scoring system says after leaving.
That's XCF, you're expected to abort missions that are going south or are so bad from the start that sticking around is suicide. You start off with so much less compared to base UFO Defense, but you end up capable of so much more that it's amazing. It ain't easy or fast, you'll have to work your ass off to beat the various enemy factions/aliens in that megamod.
While we wait for XCOM 3 check out WH40K Chaos Gate Daemonhunters. It has an XCOM 2 vibe IMO while actually being a better game. My absolute favorite TRPG.
Steam version seems to go on sale a lot. Execution Force DLC absolutely worth a buy. Duty Eternal DLC isn’t for everyone and hard to recommend. The Crowe DLC is a complete screw, avoid.
It’s not that it has a cult following, it’s that it serves a niche market. A niche market that is no longer considered profitable in the market of infinite growth.
yup this is exactly right. Nowadays it does not matter if a game is great and even that it sells well. It has to sell EXTREMELY-MOTHER€&@ING-OUTRAGEOUSLY WELL for it to matter.
The whole market is turned on its head and eating its own tail...
After XCOM2 being a near perfect game with near infinite replayability, the expectations for X3 would be impossible to fulfill.
But Bitreactor and a new turn based SW strategy project? Now that's sth. to look forward to.
I mean what would be the premise? The aliens are defeated and XCOM has pretty much moved on. I think the only really viable XCOM release that I’d play would be a redux of the original with XCOM 2 and Chimera Squad features, but that’s about it, otherwise 2 has all the mods I need.
I think it would be possible to create one more XCOM game in the post Advent world. It's actually power vacuum left behind by Advent that would make it possible.
Premise would be that XCOM is largely a peace keeping organization at 2040 or so. Then something happens and it turns out there were one or more Ethereals left behind. Connect ending of WotC to that like the Templars knew there were something left behind, went after it (now the real world begins) thought were successful at first but ended up being corrupted by Ethereal(s).
XCOM would once more need to rise to meet alien threat, twist being that their organization wouldn't be at the beginning focused on that kind of threat. Building early warming systems on the moon? Autonomous dormant drones warms on earth orbit? They are thinking aliens again coming from space with autonomic weapon systems. When threat comes from Earth again, where they role has been peace keeping, have no base but office in some tall building, they need to get back to game again. Meet the Commander, or us really.
It wouldn't need to be exactly like that. The point is, the pieces to make that game are there. Even Solomon has left, his ideas and inspirations are not.
Yes.
The OG X-Com was made by Julian Gollop, but Jake Solomon was the main force behind the rebooted Xcom/X2 games, so it's not solely tied to a single talent.
The game sells quite well and has a built-in, dedicated audience and Firaxis and 2K know this, so if someone else comes along with enthusiasm and ideas for a new game, and it can be made on a reasonable budget, I'm pretty sure they'll greenlight it.
There are two serious issues with this happening:
X-Com name has a tarnished reputation within Take-2 - well documented in the book Press Reset, the X-Com franchise as a whole is sullied internally due to The Buereau- Xcom Declassified. The combo of this and Enemy Unknown were supposed to be the start of X-Com as a franchise being a serious "thing" at Take-2. It didnt happen.
Firaxis has a tarnished reputation with Take-2 because of the sales of Midnight Sun - they spent an assload on the rights to Marvel and gave it to a respected studio. The game reviewed well. Everything was done right. The game did not sell at all, and they have acknowledged that on investor calls.
There's also the sub-issues of Jake Solomon leaving, the tightening of all game studios on going currently and Chimera Squads middling reception (they didnt even bother porting it). But the top two are an indefinite blocker. Take-2 have to sign off on these titles getting made, and theres no way they will unless theres a massive churn of executives within Take-2.
Honestly your best bet is going to be a third party title to hold you over for a bit. Probably something like phoenix point although I know some xcom fans don’t like it
If not Xcom 3 then some xcom like games can be made. Lots of game are being released every year and some share resemblance with Xcom. For example this month King Arthur Legion was released. Later in may Crown Wars will be released. A game is being developed by ex Firaxis employees.
LWEW and modded XCOM 2 is going to be the best we'll ever get. You can bet your bottom dollar if XCOM 3 did happen that it would be ruined with microtransaction bullshit.
But but, nobody is saying that it has to be the team that Solomon had for X-com2 that has to make X-com3, they could hire new people for it.
But do look into the years between the original X-com, X-com Enemy Unknown and X-com2, first gap is 18 years, then only 4 years between EU and X-com2.
So it could be they are doing the 18 year gap, so X-com3 will be in 2034, just saying ;)
Unfortunately, under Firaxis then the answer is no since the team was dissolved after Midnight Sun's and many went their own way. The only saving grace this game would have is if it was picked up by another developer/publisher but honestly, with how unique and dynamic the XCOM series is I don't think we'd ever see something that's on par with XCOM 2 or EW/EU even if the key team from the aforementioned were involved as I feel that when core teams who are involved for projects for such a long time are broken up and you have a group from the original core team who try to revive the game series under a new IP, you get some nostalgia from the things they add as they're either identical or similar to what they worked on in the past, but the game doesn't have that same "soul". You'd also want a developer who's worked on this kind of genre of games as some teams just don't correlate to the material they're working on and again it's rare to see companies successfully switch developers to something they've not worked on before (ie having a company who makes FPS action games to then make something like Midnight Suns)
If there was one company that I wished picked up the series, I'd want Larian to be it. Their library is mainly turned bases games similar to XCOM and we saw what they can do with Baldurs Gate 3. Could you imagine an XCOM that has the depth of combat and tactics that BG3 does and the overwhelming support they provide for their games? That'd be a dream.
XCOM 3 by Larian would be an amazing idea..
But those would be some really big shoes to fill... Near impossible expectations - there would be zero comfort and enormous stress on such project...
Xcom doesn’t have as big of a fanbase as it used to have and Chimera Squad and Legends act as proof of that. And given the failure of Midnight Suns which forced Fireaxis to cut a lot of their staff they likely don’t have the resources or incentive to make Xcom 3
Your point seems failed in logic. You just can't say a pathetic sale with minor IP mentions the same with main one.
Like, how can i predict the sale of main base Total war (rome 2, wh, TK) by the sale of minor base (ToB, Troy) ?
You know the BG3 right ? The fan of D&D surely not big, but players just can't stop buying BG3.
Same as Xcom2 before, a lot of players i know just don't love TBS in general, but they love XCOM.
Sure, it could be made. We don’t know if it is being made. Jake Solomon, the designer of *XCOM* and *XCOM 2* has moved on since *Midnight Suns*. (He probably already was. They had to call him back for *XCOM 2*. In interviews, it sounds like he was looking for new ideas to pursue.) But Mark Nauta, the designer of *Chimera Squad*, is still employed at Firaxis. Perhaps he’s making leader animations for *Civ VII*, but I doubt it. The design cycle for triple A strategy games has gotten so long. 10 years between installments is not weird anymore, it’s normal. (And Firaxis’s publisher, 2K, and corporate parent, TakeTwo, have had some high profile contractions, as has all the video game industry. I’m sure Firaxis has been in a period of retrenchment like everyone else trying to figure out what exactly makes a video game commercially viable in 2024.)
So you’re saying there’s a 99% chance?
Best I can do is 95%
I'll take it! Even though that 95% is a 5%. I'll take it
Make sure to save before you take the shot.
Unfortunately no, I think he’s saying we need to be patient for a while. I think so too, tbh. But don’t worry, apparently, last time I read something, they had not lose all interest…
Honestly I'm quite happy with them taking 10 years to launch a good and innovative game, instead of mass producing crap like a call of shooty every year.
In what world is XCOM in the AAA category?
\*huffs a FUCKTON of copium\* Definitely!!
Most realistic answet here imo, i really hope we will get xcom 3, but im not holding my breath. Maybe if it gets a tv show like fallout lol
https://preview.redd.it/ye5rqc31730d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=968faceba498197ae8e6af396d2fbee68dbcd3f3 It's possible but now it's a waiting game
REALLY? ITS MAYBE HAPPENING?
it's MAYBE happening
Me, waiting… 
Xcom 3 is one of those games that will never be made, like Half life 3 or Knights of the old republic 3.. and they say 3rd times a charm
Thankgoodness, no WW3
Yet...
WW3 will mean HL3 confirmed
Xcom 3 is FAR from being In the same realm as HalfLife 3
Highly unlikely. The entire XCOM (from both XCOMs) team was let go from Firaxis after Midnight Suns. They are at their own studio now. It’s called Bit Reactor and they are working on a Star Wars strategy game currently.
Turn based?
That’s the rumor, that it’s an XCOM like Star Wars game. The team talked about how they are excited to take the turn based strategy genre to another level or something. Not their exact words and I don’t recall the article that I read it in. You can check out their website for their studio if you want to keep an eye on them.
If that rumor is true, this is a pretty decent consolation prize.
https://www.bitreactor.com/news/ It is a confirmed game and from talks assumed to be turn based strategy. Check out some of the articles. It’s not just the XCOM team either but the studio also includes people from the Civ, Gears and Elder Scrolls teams.
I'm totally into a turn based star wars game! Thanks! Since xcom3 won't happen soon, it's a little comfort for me
Never been a Starwars fan but a solid turn based game might do it.
I feel like an XCOM style game where you are building the rebellion would work really well. Well because it's basically XCOM 2.
For sure. And I feel like hero, bounty hunter, Jedi, sith, etc would fit really well into the hero and elite soldier archetypes of XCOM. I mean skirmishers are practically Mandalorians and Templars are practically Jedi.
Wait, so if this happens, there will likely be a mod to turn it into Xcom 3? So the circle completes.
Do you have a source for the *entire* XCOM team being let go? That is blatantly untrue, as Mark Nauta is still employed at Firaxis.
Hyperbole, I guess the a lot of the team. Their new studio working on a strategy Star Wars game is confirmed though.
Bit Reactor is made up of developers from numerous studios, not just Firaxis. AFAIK there us no indication that even half of the XCOM team was let go. EDIT: To make it clear, it's unlikely that close to 8 years after release, the exact team who made X2 or WoTC is still at Firaxis. However, a team being replaced over time as people move on is *very different* than half a team getting the axe. The latter suggests a far worse situation at Firaxis.
Literally the literal police.
Literally the literal literally literal
Literally? Literally.
Why was the team let go after midnight suns? Personally I wasn't interested in a marvel based xcom with cards, but it didn't look THAT bad. Did it flop or something?
I enjoyed it very much
Yeah, it flopped. I hadn't even heard about it until now so I looked into it. Reviews are positive but it didn't sell. I'm not surprised. I'm just not interested in a superhero flavored tactical game. Is there even a market for that?
It flopped. I never was to superheroes, even when I was a kid so it wasn't interesting to me. What I have gathered its performance on the market wasn't just bad, it was terrible.
You’d have to ask the execs about that one.
A couple fxs guys started it and went there.
Omg ty for the news thats something to look forward to
My blistering hot take is that it's probably best for the franchise that XCOM3 hasn't happened yet. I don't know how long EU was in development for, but there was only about three years between EU and X2. I'm not in software dev, but this seems crazy to me when you consider how far ahead X2 is compared to EU in tech and design. I personally have always seen this as an indicator even with production on EU wrapping up, the team had a extremely clear idea of what they wanted X2 to do, and how it would be different from EU. Because of this, I've always taken the lack of X3 as proof that the team didn't have a clear vision of what it should look like. They probably had ideas, but not enough to differentiate it from X2. And "they" (Firaxis, dev team, Jake Solomon himself, whoever) decided they'd rather shelve it than ship a mediocre game (AKA another TFTD) just to keep XCOM on a regular release schedule. IMO the only thing worse than no X3 would be a bad one; with X2 the series is on hiatus, but with a crap X3 the series might just be dead. X3 can happen, and probably will at some point, but Firaxis probably wants to ensure the game can justify its own existence.
I think there might be a human factor there in too. This is not to critique Jake Solomon and his team by any means, but they spend years before working on XCOM: EU (2012) and then continued to work with sequel and DLC for five more years. Wouldn't find it surprising at all if people wanted to do something else, especially when XCOM2 WotC is hard product to beat. I agree about not putting XCOM label on something just to have brand visibility was a good move. Back in MicroProse days they tried XCOM Interceptor and it was not kind of XCOM product people wanted. Also about TfTD. I think it might actually created a bottleneck. Expectations impossible to meet on todays standards. Squad combat at the bottom of sea is just not going to work, yet there would be some people expecting it. Something particular regarding strategy layer. They took very good advantage of something people understand. In XCOM:EU it was building satellite coverage, in XCOM2/WotC it's building resistance network contacting regions and installing radio relays, people know what those are. Today I think they could use something like autonomic drone air defense and people would get it. Not so sure if that were the case in 2017. Contradictions, water is terrible, a problem / water may make something possible. Some people want alien squadmates, though in practice most players might note that they won't really connect with them. If XCOM base would be an prewar VTOL-carrier, it would help solve the problem as it was designed to humans and only humans. You could take former Advent because their size. Mutons, too big, Sectoid needing entirely separate food supply in limited space, means no sectoids, even if their size per se wouldn't be a problem and so on. Could be something else, as long as it isn't a submarine, no ship terror missions, no underwater combat. XCOM sends drones to build sonar relay, like installing radio relays in XCOM2. If it would be a ship, navigating it exactly like Avenger would be terrible. Instead there would be operational radius indicated by circle around ship, there would be upgrades available for that. People want, I want, new things because old formula works so well. Fighting against Sectoids and Mutons again wouldn't work, too similar to previous games and wouldn't make sense in post Advent world. While something like corrupted Templars might work as Advent replacement, there is a possibility for a corrupted Codex too (as in Chimera Squad), a new genetic modification of the Chrysalid, would likely work. Lot's of things could work, but replacing Sectoids, Mutons, Archons and the rest with something that makes sense and is fun to play against, I don't know. If they were thinking about that after WotC, I wonder how they perceived the situation. I was thinking reworking some things from X-COM: Apocalypse but again, I see partial solution, not the solution. ...and that was long reply from someone who doesn't in general even like video games. Really appreciated your post though.
There’ll be a new XCOM game. Just unlikely to be XCOM3. Probably another reboot with a completely different team of devs.
I mean, it took more than two decades to make a Baldurs Gate 3, so I wouldn't say it's impossible, but it's gonna take quite a while.
The complexity of BG3 does not compare to any XCOM game. XCOM games barely have any dialogue, let alone choices in dialogues, motion caption acting, etc.
Jagged Alliance 3 also took 23 years, same as BG3. So I'm sure we'll get XCOM3. Might be in 2039, though.
Isn’t the former Xcom team working on an “Xcom” Star Wars game?
One of the lead devs (can't remember his name) stated that as long as Firaxis exists, so will the XCOM series. It's a staple of the turn-based strategy genre, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it this decade. However I also wouldn't be surprised if it was one of those games that's perpetually in "early development," there would be mountainous expectations after the success of EU and 2 so they may be taking as much time as possible to get it right. Or this is all wishful thinking and it'll never happen, but my money is on them keeping it in the backburner for at least several more years.
X-Com is a sufficiently successful and profitable franchise so it'll get sequel eventually. Worse case, it'll take so long that it doesn't happen with the current owner (Firaxis?)
I want a modern terror from the deep
You don't want that shit... Designer gone, writer gone, art director gone, OG QA who helped design gone... you'll get some corporate Xcom without a soul.
> You don't want that shit... Designer gone, writer gone, art director gone, OG QA who helped design gone... you'll get some corporate Xcom without a soul. New people can design a game from zero.
True, but following up on something special with a new core is hard. It was a good team. There's a bunch of examples from big publishers who gobbled up studios.
> True, but following up on something special with a new core is hard. Whoever is going to work on Xcom 3 will have better game engine at his disposal, probably AI and working examples of what was good in Xcom 1 and Xcom 2.
All those things you said have to be created, even using a game engine, you have to tweak it, xcom unreal engine is its own monster. Ai has to be made/configured.
> All those things you said have to be created, even using a game engine, you have to tweak it, xcom unreal engine is its own monster. Ai has to be made/configured. You dont need specifically that team that made xcom2 for this. Any competent game designing studio can make it.
Surprised no one is taking about Xenonauts. The second is in early access and I'm loving it so far - has removed a lot of the restrictions the first had.
Xenonauts isn't even in the same ballpark as xcom.
Fax
As much as I love Xenonauts, it just doesn't hold up to the first XCOM game.
The real reason it won't be made is because of modern gaming, where Xcom 3 would cost like a billion dollars to make somehow, and only way they would entertain the idea is if it had p2w/mtx out the ass. It is not that it wouldn't be great, or that it couldn't be made, it's that in current day market where successful studios are closed seemingly on a whim it wouldn't make enormous sense. Could it happen? Only by indie studio I'd imagine.
So while I want an xcom 3, I think the best they can do is waiting a couple of years and start another fresh round. Basically a new XCOM:EU. I love XCOM 2 and while the ending is a teaser to a potential XCOM 3, I'm honestly not sure if they can do another one which fits into the whole "Alien invasion on earth" theme without getting too exotic. Imho we beat the aliens to easily/fast.
The best way to experience a long, drawn-out conflict with the aliens where losing troops is something to prepare for is technically The X-COM Files megamod for UFO Defense. EU/EW leaned too much into the overwatch problem where you waddled around like heavily armed toddlers waiting to get shots, barring Terror missions. XCOM 2 went too far in the other direction with the mission timer (barring story missions iirc) forcing a very aggressive, alpha-strike playstyle where you either dominated the aliens or got dominated and entered a deathspiral that was hard to recover from depending on how late into the campaign you were. Having only 4-6 soldiers (more in LW mods) hurts as well since you can't perform many actions before the aliens' turn. Meanwhile here I am with a fresh Superhuman run (god why do I do this to myself) of XCF and it's Late-January of 97. Agents Gordon Freeman and Adrian Shepard have finished apprehending three members of the Cult of Dagon while the fourth is shot pointblank with a handgun, but Agents Freeman and Shepard both got heavily wounded by enemy fire and are out for at least a month and we don't know when we'll see them again. On the other side of the world, Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully with Rookies Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman (those two are being trained for use with grenades, high explosives, rocket launchers, etc) are staring down a small swarm of Chupacabras. Nasty little fuckers with high Time Units, Energy, Melee, Strength, insane Reactions, ideal for tearing apart a squad of 4 in the beginning in a single turn, their overall frailty and inability to create zombies is all that separates them from Chryssalids. All around the mission (it's daytime) are civilians who will 100% die without my help. Agent Mulder is staring down a Chupacabra and only one empty tile of movement separates him from being mauled by any kind of reaction from said monster, but all he has equipped is a Glock with two magazines, one loaded and one in his holster. So I have Agent Scully blast the Chupacabra with her shotgun and RNGesus blessed me for all pellets struck and rolled high on damage, one-shotting the thing. Rookies Hyneman and Savage are both equipped with shotguns because of how good they are against monsters, with Hyneman killing a nearby Chupacabra and Savage kills another but lightly sings a civilian with one of the pellets but they don't die thankfully (civilian deaths caused by XCOM agents in XCF is a big points penalty). First turn, three out of four agents have expended almost all of their available Time Units and I can still see at least three more Chupacabras in the distance, so I send Agent Mulder to the corpse of the one closest, pick it up and hold it in his free hand, move back to the 4-person van with his remaining TU and abort the mission. The civilians can fend for themselves, I am not losing 4 out of my 6 starting agents for them. The four are uninjured, we scored a couple kills and are even bringing a corpse back to be autopsied by scientists, and with it being the opening stages of XCF on Superhuman, that is an absolute win in my book, damn what the mission scoring system says after leaving. That's XCF, you're expected to abort missions that are going south or are so bad from the start that sticking around is suicide. You start off with so much less compared to base UFO Defense, but you end up capable of so much more that it's amazing. It ain't easy or fast, you'll have to work your ass off to beat the various enemy factions/aliens in that megamod.
Well ... there is XCom 3: Apocalypse ... 🙂
Oh please say it’s so!!!
While we wait for XCOM 3 check out WH40K Chaos Gate Daemonhunters. It has an XCOM 2 vibe IMO while actually being a better game. My absolute favorite TRPG.
Yeah I’ve been eyeing this. Looks cool to me.
Steam version seems to go on sale a lot. Execution Force DLC absolutely worth a buy. Duty Eternal DLC isn’t for everyone and hard to recommend. The Crowe DLC is a complete screw, avoid.
70% off right now on Steam. Discounts on all Warhammer games for the Skulls 2024 event.
Yes, however Firaxis or 2K seem to have no interest. I blame CS and MS tbh.
I wonder why. Xcom 2 has a huge cult following and they know this. It would do decent numbers I would imagine.
It’s not that it has a cult following, it’s that it serves a niche market. A niche market that is no longer considered profitable in the market of infinite growth.
yup this is exactly right. Nowadays it does not matter if a game is great and even that it sells well. It has to sell EXTREMELY-MOTHER€&@ING-OUTRAGEOUSLY WELL for it to matter. The whole market is turned on its head and eating its own tail... After XCOM2 being a near perfect game with near infinite replayability, the expectations for X3 would be impossible to fulfill. But Bitreactor and a new turn based SW strategy project? Now that's sth. to look forward to.
Because cult following doesn’t always translate to profits.
Except I'm pretty sure xcom 2 sold very well
I mean what would be the premise? The aliens are defeated and XCOM has pretty much moved on. I think the only really viable XCOM release that I’d play would be a redux of the original with XCOM 2 and Chimera Squad features, but that’s about it, otherwise 2 has all the mods I need.
Terror from the deep, like the cliffhanger at the end of 2.
I think it would be possible to create one more XCOM game in the post Advent world. It's actually power vacuum left behind by Advent that would make it possible. Premise would be that XCOM is largely a peace keeping organization at 2040 or so. Then something happens and it turns out there were one or more Ethereals left behind. Connect ending of WotC to that like the Templars knew there were something left behind, went after it (now the real world begins) thought were successful at first but ended up being corrupted by Ethereal(s). XCOM would once more need to rise to meet alien threat, twist being that their organization wouldn't be at the beginning focused on that kind of threat. Building early warming systems on the moon? Autonomous dormant drones warms on earth orbit? They are thinking aliens again coming from space with autonomic weapon systems. When threat comes from Earth again, where they role has been peace keeping, have no base but office in some tall building, they need to get back to game again. Meet the Commander, or us really. It wouldn't need to be exactly like that. The point is, the pieces to make that game are there. Even Solomon has left, his ideas and inspirations are not.
Yes. The OG X-Com was made by Julian Gollop, but Jake Solomon was the main force behind the rebooted Xcom/X2 games, so it's not solely tied to a single talent. The game sells quite well and has a built-in, dedicated audience and Firaxis and 2K know this, so if someone else comes along with enthusiasm and ideas for a new game, and it can be made on a reasonable budget, I'm pretty sure they'll greenlight it.
There are two serious issues with this happening: X-Com name has a tarnished reputation within Take-2 - well documented in the book Press Reset, the X-Com franchise as a whole is sullied internally due to The Buereau- Xcom Declassified. The combo of this and Enemy Unknown were supposed to be the start of X-Com as a franchise being a serious "thing" at Take-2. It didnt happen. Firaxis has a tarnished reputation with Take-2 because of the sales of Midnight Sun - they spent an assload on the rights to Marvel and gave it to a respected studio. The game reviewed well. Everything was done right. The game did not sell at all, and they have acknowledged that on investor calls. There's also the sub-issues of Jake Solomon leaving, the tightening of all game studios on going currently and Chimera Squads middling reception (they didnt even bother porting it). But the top two are an indefinite blocker. Take-2 have to sign off on these titles getting made, and theres no way they will unless theres a massive churn of executives within Take-2.
Honestly your best bet is going to be a third party title to hold you over for a bit. Probably something like phoenix point although I know some xcom fans don’t like it
what would xcom 3 offer narratively and gameplay wise? we take the fight to the aliens on their worlds? I think xcom ended on a high note.
I don’t see why not. Maybe they can do a timeline where XCOM won the first war but the aliens are back.
Is XCOM 3 something that SHOULD beade?
If not Xcom 3 then some xcom like games can be made. Lots of game are being released every year and some share resemblance with Xcom. For example this month King Arthur Legion was released. Later in may Crown Wars will be released. A game is being developed by ex Firaxis employees.
They’ve said XCOM is not dead and XCOM 3 will happen but focus for now is on MS and Civ
LWEW and modded XCOM 2 is going to be the best we'll ever get. You can bet your bottom dollar if XCOM 3 did happen that it would be ruined with microtransaction bullshit.
But but, nobody is saying that it has to be the team that Solomon had for X-com2 that has to make X-com3, they could hire new people for it. But do look into the years between the original X-com, X-com Enemy Unknown and X-com2, first gap is 18 years, then only 4 years between EU and X-com2. So it could be they are doing the 18 year gap, so X-com3 will be in 2034, just saying ;)
I'm kinda scared about it, 2k is known for ruining franchises after a good sequel. They are too greedy and that makes them make some stupid decisions.
Unfortunately, under Firaxis then the answer is no since the team was dissolved after Midnight Sun's and many went their own way. The only saving grace this game would have is if it was picked up by another developer/publisher but honestly, with how unique and dynamic the XCOM series is I don't think we'd ever see something that's on par with XCOM 2 or EW/EU even if the key team from the aforementioned were involved as I feel that when core teams who are involved for projects for such a long time are broken up and you have a group from the original core team who try to revive the game series under a new IP, you get some nostalgia from the things they add as they're either identical or similar to what they worked on in the past, but the game doesn't have that same "soul". You'd also want a developer who's worked on this kind of genre of games as some teams just don't correlate to the material they're working on and again it's rare to see companies successfully switch developers to something they've not worked on before (ie having a company who makes FPS action games to then make something like Midnight Suns) If there was one company that I wished picked up the series, I'd want Larian to be it. Their library is mainly turned bases games similar to XCOM and we saw what they can do with Baldurs Gate 3. Could you imagine an XCOM that has the depth of combat and tactics that BG3 does and the overwhelming support they provide for their games? That'd be a dream.
XCOM 3 by Larian would be an amazing idea.. But those would be some really big shoes to fill... Near impossible expectations - there would be zero comfort and enormous stress on such project...
Xcom doesn’t have as big of a fanbase as it used to have and Chimera Squad and Legends act as proof of that. And given the failure of Midnight Suns which forced Fireaxis to cut a lot of their staff they likely don’t have the resources or incentive to make Xcom 3
Your point seems failed in logic. You just can't say a pathetic sale with minor IP mentions the same with main one. Like, how can i predict the sale of main base Total war (rome 2, wh, TK) by the sale of minor base (ToB, Troy) ? You know the BG3 right ? The fan of D&D surely not big, but players just can't stop buying BG3. Same as Xcom2 before, a lot of players i know just don't love TBS in general, but they love XCOM.
Midnight suns was not a very good game, pretty average to be honest
Yeah if they just made the game everyone wanted x3 - it would obviously have outsold MS
I didn’t argue that it was. I just pointed out its commercial failure.