XCOM First Person Shooter from 2K Marin Confirmed

2K Games and Take Two have announced that they are indeed working on a XCOM game, with plans to launch it for the Xbox 360 home gaming console from Microsoft and the PC.

The team says it will combine the classic strategic elements that made X-COM a classic while moving the main action to the first person shooter genre while also aiming for a story that grips the players and provides them with reasons to move forward through the videogame. 2K Marin has not mentioned any possible release window but we could see the game in late 2010 if development has really been going for as long as rumors on the project have been swirling around.

The new XCOM (apparently the hyphen in the initial name was not interesting enough) will put the player in the office shoes and combat boots of an FBI agent who is in charge of identifying the alien threat to humanity and eliminating it. 2K Marin is saying that one of their aims is to keep the same atmosphere of terror and uncertainty, which dominated UFO: Enemy Unknown while introducing more tension and adrenaline bursts by putting the player directly in the line of danger from a first person perspective.

From the initial announcement, it's not completely clear whether 2K Marin will keep all the strategic aspects of the franchise in their new XCOM game, including manufacturing, research and agent training. They mentioned “strategic gambles” but do not make clear what they will consist of.

Christoph Hartmann, who is the president of 2K, stated as part of the announcement that “With BioShock 2, the team at 2K Marin proved themselves as masters of first-person, suspenseful storytelling, and with XCOM they will re-imagine and expand the rich lore of this revered franchise. Players will explore the world of XCOM from an immersive new perspective and experience firsthand the fear and tension of this gripping narrative ride.”