14 DAY TRIAL // More and more signs are beginning to pile up about new additions to the X-Com series coming to life. First amongst them is the one about 2K Boston working on a new game in the series that surfaced in 2007. Since then, any details from the company have been kept away from the public eyes, but, in March, studio head Ken Levine did praise the game series and admitted to just recently playing X-Com: Enforcer. The 2001 sci-fi shooter was a poorly received title, but that didn't seem to put Levine off. Five months later, job listings for 2K Boston proved that the company was working on an unidentified shooter, which would make perfect sense if it were an X-Com one.
The speculations seems to have been accurate, and the inquisitive Superannuation has yet again managed to bring obscure details to light. It has managed to find a resume for a 3D artist that worked for the Australian branch of 2K from January 2007 until April 2008. The artist listed two projects that he was involved with, one being a Bioshock game for the PC and the Xbox 360 and the other one the elusive “X-Com (Xbox 360, PC Game).” Superannuation didn't stop here and took its investigation further, and a second X-Com game has been located.
According to a tweeter message posted by Superannuation's proprietor, the new title is under Fireaxis's dominion. “Apparently, there's a rumor that X-Com is being developed by Firaxis, which I wouldn't find hard to believe. I swear that I read they're working on a sci-fi game somewhere... The rumor is that there's two X-Com games – [an] FPS from Irrational and [a] turn-based one from Firaxis.”
The Fireaxis X-Com game isn't one that just came to light. It first started appearing in conversations back in 2001, when X-Com publisher MicroProse was bought by Infogrames. Then, three years later, during Sid Meier's relaunch of Pirates, Meier told GameSpot that Fireaxis was in negotiations to retain the X-Com IP. Now, the license is currently in the hands of Take-Two, which bought Fireaxis in 2005. The license rights are found in the US Patent and Trademark Office records. The bottom line is that the X-Com franchise is far from dead in the water, and should, in a relatively short amount of time, receive at least two new games.