The Other XCOM Isn’t Coming Out Anytime Soon

2K Games has been playing hot potato with its shooter-tinged reboot of XCOM since it began development, and today pushed it back again, confirming it won’t show up until at least April 1, 2013.

No, this does not impact the strategy game. That game was just given a release date: October 9. You can breathe easy.

Specifically, parent company Take-Two Interactive announced XCOM is scheduled for release during fiscal year 2014, which lands between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014. So, a ways away.

The company adopted a similar strategy with the soon-to-be-released Spec Ops: The Line, choosing to delay and significantly retool it, rather than just releasing what it had. It’s unclear whether the extra time will prove valuable for Spec Ops: The Line, but at least Take-Two gave it a shot.

XCOM looked significantly different between its original showing in E3 2010 and E3 2011, and to be honest, I liked both versions. It’s a radical departure from its strategy roots, but we’re getting that, too. Everyone wins!

Bummer :(

Makes you wonder why they show them so early, if only to end up stringing along the potential buyer so long that they end up losing interest.

Bummer. Looking forward to this.

Not surprising.

Funny that the XCOM game announced after this one is coming out before it.

Hopefully the delays will result in a better game, and not just bigger losses.

My frothing apathy continues unabated.

So Take2 is pushing everything the more they see the release of GTAV possible?

@Scrawnto said:

Funny that the XCOM game announced after this one is coming out before it.

Indeed, but it makes sense though. Every XCOM fan will be more open minded to an xcom 3rd person shooter, once we get our classic strategy remake first.

Seems like this is the year of pushing game releases back to next year haha

This game has gotten a lot of heat. I hope it turns out good just because, i guess. Unfortunately, I do not share the love of XCom, but I understand peoples issues with it being turned into this. Hopefully that is mostly quelled by the release of the RTS.

As a concept, though, it could still be a decent game. We shall see.

As long as the game gets released.. I'm not that worried if they delay it til end of next year.. as long as the game is good..

I never played original X-com, but this never caught my interest.

Good. I was really bummed when I heard that the new xcom will be a FPS but then I got really happy to hear that there's going to be another, more appropriate, xcom game.

I feel this is combat negative association with the XCOM name because the first person shooter was announced first.

Everyone has basically said "we didn't want this" so instead they're releasing the game they did want first and then see how it goes from there. I'm personally very excited for both games and although I'm bitter at the fact I can't play 2k's game right now (as it was supposed to be released this past february) I hope the extra time will make a better game.

I was actually interested in this.@Saucii said:

Bummer :(

Makes you wonder why they show them so early, if only to end up stringing along the potential buyer so long that they end up losing interest.

Build up hype.

@iAmJohn said:

My frothing apathy continues unabated.

This actually made me laugh out loud. None of that "lol" nonsense, but a physical "hurr hurr" kinda noise. You just earned yourself a "FOLLOW" new friend.

So...what the hell is still coming out this year?

@Shaanyboi: Halo4. Which is rapture for some, damnation for others.

And another Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed.

Also Lollipop Chainsaw.

Does anyone care? There seems to be more hype for the upcoming RTS release.

@demonbear said:

@Scrawnto said:

Funny that the XCOM game announced after this one is coming out before it.

Indeed, but it makes sense though. Every XCOM fan will be more open minded to an xcom 3rd person shooter, once we get our classic strategy remake first.

Particularly if they seed the strategy game with "historical" facts from the 60's.

I hope this ends up being decent. All the preview materials I've seen have pointed to it having some interesting ideas. I'm glad they're willing to give it plenty of extra time rather than push some crap out the door.

@Shaanyboi said:

So...what the hell is still coming out this year?

The good new Xcom game...

Damn, this game looked great too. I'm beginning to think this game's never. Eh, it'll probably come out, but these delays aren't exactly building up my faith in its quality.

We're now at least a few years into companies delaying games to supposedly improve the, but it doesn't seem to be a consistently viable one. EA was famously burned doing this and it looks like 2K might end up doing the same.

I thought they already announced that the XCOM FPS was 2013 when the GameInformer XCOM: Enemy Unknown coverage happened?

What they have shown of this game looks cool. I am totally down for a Brothers in Arms style game with a strategy meta-layer.

Call of Duty, Halo, and Medal of Honor. I would not be shocked if every first person shooter runs for 2013 to avoid going up against those three.

I'm hoping this delay is to retool it again like they did before, when they took it from a straight FPS to a slightly more tactical one.

I'm still betting this just gets cancelled.

I was excited for this at first, then i saw some footage and got a little less excited. shooting giant cubes doesn't sound like much fun. 

how much do you want to bet that come april 1st there will be some press release saying "april fools the game doesn't come out for another 3 months/ever"?

Oh well, at least we get one XCOM game this year.

It would be neat if they could do something to make your actions in the RTS have an effect on what happens in the FPS, but that seems especially unlikely given how wide the gap between the two releases is now. Hopefully this still comes out...I bet that depends entirely on the sales of the RTS.

So, to all you raging super fans that bitched before...you better buy the damn strategy game!

I was always found April 1st a weird time to start a financial year. I guess it makes sense for video game companies, as I can't think of many others that start / end around the same time.

Yet another big name Take-Two action game delayed out of this year. What else do their subsidiaries have that is scheduled for release in September or later this year? It's almost like they're making room for a sure thing.

Damn thought it would be fairly recently since they've been hyping it since last year...

@iAmJohn said:

My frothing apathy continues unabated.

Pretty much. As far as I am concerned, there is one XCOM game for me to care about, and its coming out in October.

I really hope this game isn't cancelled. It looked really cool.

@BrockNRolla said:

I'm still betting this just gets cancelled.

This. (Especially if the strategy title this year tanks in sales, which I bet is quite possible.)

I'm looking forward to both games. I hope the shooter still makes it out with creativity and vision intact.

Gotta say I'm much more excited for Enemy Unknown than this shooter reboot. I'll still play it if it sees the light of day, though.

For a second I thought that big box thing on the image, was the Tardus.

I would be interested in this 'other' Xcom if that was the case.

@Rapid said:

For a second I thought that big box thing on the image, was the Tardus.

I would be interested in this 'other' Xcom if that was the case.

Oh man, I want that game.

Guys, I don't think we'll ever see this game.

Every time someone calls XCOM: Enemy Unknown an "RTS" (real time strategy) game I die a little bit inside. It's a TURN based strategy game. It's the complete god damn opposite of an RTS.

Excuse me while I go and weep in the corner now.

You have to wonder if at some point its better just to cut your losses, release on schedule, and save the changes for the sequel. I'm sure smarter people than I have considered this, including the hit your reputation takes with a poor release, but you're pushing something out to when people will only care about next-gen games and unless you go Duke Nukem Forever on this and start from the ground up for the next console you can't be saving that much, though at that point you're screwed either way.

Shocked its not canned yet, but I guess its far in development where they don't want to take a huge loss. Who knows!

Damn both times this game was shown it looked interesting and fantastic.  Hopefully we'll get to play it sooner than later.

So now every publisher is releasing everything at the start of the year instead.

Kind of sucks if they radically change it. Liked what I saw at E3 2010 and 2011. Guessing we won't see it this year

Gamer disappointment has been delayed.

I'm wondering if this is everyone just waiting to see of they're going to get the next-gen consoles soon. It would make sense depending on expected console release dates.

WTF is up with all these games getting pushed back.