By Craig Pearson on November 9th, 2011 at 12:26 pm.
2K Games have exclusively told me, and everyone else with an internet connection and an interest in game publisher financial details, that they’re delaying XCOM until ‘fiscal 2013′, presumably to avoid clashing with the end of days.
I had to double-check: fiscal 2013 isn’t a festival, but the period of time covering April 2012 and March 2013, so there’s still no firm release date for the FPS reboot of the classic strategy series. But there was marked drop in excitement from the announcement to the more recent playthrough footage, so if the developers are getting the time they need to make it better then it’s fine by me. Besides, Bioshock: Infinite is still listed as “Calender year 2012″, so I’m now updating my Google Calender to mark every day down as a potential day to take off. Just in case.
Recently WITted detective game, LA Noire, has sold over four million copies, while console only cowboy sim Red Dead Redemption ended up shifting 13 million copies. I still don’t understand why we get the former and not the latter, especially looking at those figures. Maybe they just sold too many, and couldn’t see their keyboards underneath all that money?
09/11/2011 at 13:00 Danorz says:
ding dong the witch is dead~
09/11/2011 at 13:05 Hoaxfish says:
Will the UK PC release be delayed until “fiscal 2013 +6 months”?
09/11/2011 at 13:12 GallonOfAlan says:
Bollocks. Looking forward to this.
09/11/2011 at 21:04 purple light says:
someone on a blog allegedly about pc gaming is looking forward to this shit?
09/11/2011 at 13:19 merc-ai says:
Surely this means they took more time to add turn-based combat and some other stuff that matters for X-COM title.
09/11/2011 at 14:49 jonfitt says:
Yeeeeeaah. I’m not so sure about that.
Rarely do delays like this lead to radical re-thinks. The game is well along the road at this point.
09/11/2011 at 15:24 Synesthesia says:
they just need to model a few more chest-high walls.
09/11/2011 at 15:58 Beebop says:
Never mind, if we just change the speed setting on the planet it’ll be here in real-time minutes. Keep a beady eye out and be ready to pause if you see any red dots flying across the globe though.
09/11/2011 at 17:16 Squiddity says:
@jonfitt: after everyone’s whining, the game actually was radically rethought. That’s why it didn’t come out this spring, when it was initially planned.
Makes me a little sad. I have no nostalgia for playing X-Com, not when the series has been through three genres in four titles, and not when 2K Marin’s worked on some of the finest first person shooters I have ever played. I did quite want to play the original game they were suggesting. The newer, more tactics-focused game (the first one sounded atmospheric/investigatory) seems a bit more like Mass Effect, which ultimately means more cover and other silly things. :\
But yes, it’s already been radically reworked.
09/11/2011 at 17:35 Someblokius says:
Ah, delays of no stated reason…
The idea of a meeting where a new 2k producer bangs their fist on a table and asks “Where’s the fucking Sectoids?!? How do I end my turn?” amuses me.
09/11/2011 at 13:20 Harry_Tequila says:
Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
09/11/2011 at 13:26 Rao Dao Zao says:
The aliens were from Nibiru all along?
09/11/2011 at 13:56 thegooseking says:
I’m starting to feel like a minority here, but I do think Red Dead Redemption wouldn’t work with a keyboard and mouse. Oh, it’d be playable, but a lot of what made the game so great would be lost. Particularly the wonderful horse-riding mechanic. Like, it would be worse than trying to drive a car with WASD. Of course, there is the option of playing with an Xbox 360 controller even on the PC, so some might say that’s no excuse, but I get the feeling if it doesn’t work on keyboard and mouse, it’ll be criticised as a bad port, even though it’s hard to see how it could work on keyboard and mouse. While L.A. Noire is basically a high-def point and click adventure with a slightly different method of pointing, so there’s no question about it working on the PC.
If this is like my previous comments on the matter, someone will respond by saying, “But RDR’s a third-person shooter and third-person shooters are better with keyboard and mouse”. Yes, it’s in the third-person and involves guns that are sometimes used to shoot men (and rabbits), but that’s neither the point of the game nor what’s great about it. So shut up.
09/11/2011 at 16:06 Nemrod says:
But! I wanter a PC cowboy face-men-shooting-and-horses-riding simulator ! even a shady port :(
09/11/2011 at 18:07 coldvvvave says:
Get a PS3 and play it. I did so and game turned out to be mediocre at best.
09/11/2011 at 18:13 iucounu says:
What?! It’s terrific! Absolutely terrific. I’ve spent more time just cheating at poker in RDR than I’ve put into most games I’ve bought in the last year.
09/11/2011 at 18:16 Balm says:
I’v beaten RDR on PS3 and can’t see myself having any problems with playing it KB+M way or how horses could be be terribly different. Plus M&B and AssCr’s horses handle just fine no matter the input method.
The only possible issue I can see is ‘DeadEye’ brand of bullet time becoming useless with mouse aiming avaliable.
09/11/2011 at 19:56 Kadayi says:
I suspect most PC gamers have a controller (360 or otherwise) lying around tbh. I pretty much played all of FO3 using one, and did all the driving in GTA IV with it as well.
10/11/2011 at 08:26 sbs says:
What is ‘FO3′?
09/11/2011 at 14:01 Icarus says:
What a sh– no, I just can’t. Too many other games to play that I’m a lot more excited about by this point. To be honest, I -was- sort of looking forward to seeing how they reimagined the story, but every presentation they’ve put out has lessened my excitement to the point where I just don’t want it. It’s just not X-COM any more in pretty much any way that matters, and that makes me sad.
09/11/2011 at 14:36 mondomau says:
Does this mean they’ll shut up about it for 6 months or so? ‘Cause that’d be swell.
09/11/2011 at 14:48 Dariune says:
I still find this project a real shame.
Im aware of the argument stating that this game does nothing to the older games but its still hard not to be disappointed when a game your really into gets a new iteration after many years and this bland looking FPS is the result.
Dangerous precedent IMO.
09/11/2011 at 15:59 imoimoimo says:
http://mcaf.ee/s9fyk
http://mcaf.ee/s9fyk
http://mcaf.ee/s9fyk
pppolololol
09/11/2011 at 16:18 brulleks says:
Another end of times already? Seems like only a year ago we had the last one.
Perhaps if you add together the dates of all the prophesied ‘end of times’ you get the real one?
09/11/2011 at 18:05 iucounu says:
Here, have a go.
09/11/2011 at 16:42 aircool says:
Someone obviously realised that they need Moar Snakemen!
09/11/2011 at 16:59 Radiant says:
Sort of reminds me about when I saw the star wars prequel release schedule with the later films coming out after the y2k millennium bug collapse.
Damn; I made so much money from that y2k bullshit.
09/11/2011 at 18:36 kud13 says:
I hope at the very least they spent these 6 months trying to get the chrysalid animations right….
09/11/2011 at 19:37 Tokamak says:
Hopefully they’ll re-imagine XCOM out of the title altogether.
09/11/2011 at 20:21 Beelzebud says:
Now if they could just delay it forever, and start working on a real X-Com game, I’d be happy.
09/11/2011 at 21:05 buzzmong says:
“there was marked drop in excitement”
You don’t say. The original reboot premise about being an investigator and having to investigate after attacks and run for the bloody hills if you found the attack wasn’t quite over, at least until you managed to scavenge/research enough tech to not cower in a corner, was actually really interesting even if it wasn’t the turn based UFO:EU update I wanted.
The footage showed it to be a rather unexciting cover, regenerating health and subservient AI based semi-tactical third person shooter and a criminal use of the licence.
I do wonder if the studio behind it aren’t also aware of the praise Xenonauts has got for well, being Xcom.
10/11/2011 at 01:34 Sabre_Justice says:
Too bad, I was hoping the Mass Effect clone they’d turned it into would release on the same day as Mass Effect 3.
Xenonauts is going to outsell this. I’m seriously betting on it. (metaphorically)
10/11/2011 at 09:36 adonf says:
calender:
To press between rollers for the purpose of making smooth and glossy
Between the Apocalypse, the Rapture and the global calendering, 2012(tm) is gonna be the best year EVER!!!