The original XCOM, 2012’s Enemy Unknown, and XCOM 2 represent some of the most brilliantly designed games in history. Everything you do, every choice, has meaning and consequence – every decision on every turn feels like it has resonance, not just mechanically, but narratively and emotionally. Firaxis has been busy lately, first with the supremely underplayed Midnight Suns, and then Civilization 7. The original creator of XCOM also has a new game in the works but, speaking to PCGamesN, he still wants to know about the series’ future – in fact, he’s just as curious about XCOM 3 as we are.
XCOM 3 might be one of the most anticipated strategy games right now, but without Julian Gollop, the series wouldn’t exist at all. Back in 1994, alongside his brother Nick and designer Steve Hand, Gollop designed and released XCOM: UFO Defense, spawning the entire turn-based alien shooter saga. While not directly involved with the 2012 Firaxis revival, the Gollop Chamber, used to contact the Uber Ethereal towards the end of the game, is named in his honor – in 2017’s E3, Gollop met with Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2 lead designer Jake Solomon.
Currently, however, he’s the CEO and creative lead at Snapshot Games, and he sat down with us to discuss his new strategy and action game hybrid, Chip ‘n Clawz Versus The Brainioids. As for XCOM, however, Gollop says that the original game was far from a guaranteed success.
“We were not optimistic that the game was going to find an audience,” he explains. “We were very surprised that it caught the zeitgeist. You had Civilization and also the other MicroProse games like Master of Orion and Master of Magic. But it was a certain age that got eclipsed fairly rapidly by the RTS.”
As for the new XCOM games under Firaxis, Gollop senses that, despite their success, the genre as a whole remains quite specialist.
“The revival of XCOM with Firaxis has spawned a lot of imitators, for sure,” Gollop says. “Most of the imitation has been in the turn-based mechanics. But not all of them find success; Lamplighters League being an example, perhaps. It might be the case that the audience for those games isn’t that huge. Maybe those games are still quite a niche. Maybe the revival of XCOM by Firaxis is just an unusual thing that happened and it’s not going to happen again.”
And as for XCOM 3…
“Where’s XCOM 3?” Gollop asks. “I want to know. I don’t know why they haven’t continued that series. Obviously the team that made XCOM 2 did Midnight Suns, and then they left Firaxis altogether, as I understand. It wouldn’t surprise me if Firaxis were working on an XCOM 3, but it would be with a new team.”
There were four years between Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2. The last release in Firaxis’ version of the series was Chimera Squad, back in 2020. So, maybe the time is just about right. Then again, this is XCOM. Even if there’s a high-percentage chance, you’ll probably still miss.
Check out some of the other best RTS games, or maybe the best 4X games on PC.
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