There have been rumors of Firaxis working with the X-Com license for years, but the reality seemed an impossible dream when 2K Marin’s first-person reimagining was announced as XCOM.

We’re actually getting the best of both worlds, with XCOM coming in the next few months, and Firaxis working on a remake of the original X-Com for this fall--yep, 2012-- entitled XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Yes, XCOM, not X-Com. We’re getting a Firaxis-developed X-Com, though, so let’s all get over it.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is meant to be a completely different take than XCOM, as the linkage to the original game implies. 2K Games is promising a “equal emphasis on deep strategy and intense tactical combat” that includes “managing resources, advancing technologies, and overseeing combat strategies and individual unit tactics.”

It’s unclear how much XCOM: Enemy Unknown will borrow from Firaxis’ hugely popular Civilization Revolution, but given that XCOM: Enemy Unknown is coming to PC and Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, there’s reason to believe the approach may be similar. Thankfully, Civilization Revolution was a pretty good game.

If you’ve never played XCOM (the most I remember touching was a few missions of X-Com: Terror from the Deep), the games are available for just a few bucks on Steam.