XCOM Message Board older than one year ago

This blatantly obvious viral marketing video from 2K Games means we'll soon be hearing about 'The Bureau," whether that is the title or the subtitle of the "XCOM Shooter."

Quietly – ever so quietly – XCOM: The Game Of The Other, Very Different Game has poofed into Duke-Nukem-scented vapors. It’s touched down and carved crop circles into the fields of our imaginations a couple times, but not without 2K Marin knocking it out of its bicycle basket and dragging it back into the deepest reaches of some underground testing facility. Matters, I imagine, were only complicated when XCOM: Enemy Unknown defied 2K’s expectations by being incredibly well-received, leaving the idea of an XCOM shooter in an even fuzzier limbo. That in mind, it’s not entirely surprising to see the repeatedly revamped reboot suddenly vanish without a trace – especially when another revamp may well be the culprit.

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2K Marin's XCOM shooter seems to be in trouble, based on how thorough 2K Games has been about erasing it from the internet. The XCOM shooter website and even all trailers uploaded to 2K Games' official YouTube channel have been removed.

Last month, a piece from Superannuation posited that 2K Games is looking to rebrand the XCOM shooter, based on some domain registrations for thebureau-game.com, thebureau-game.net, whathappenedin62.com, and whathappenedin62.net. The XCOM shooter, if you'll recall, takes place in 1962.

As of February, XCOM is still in production at 2K Marin for parent company Take-Two's fiscal 2014, which means it's due before March 31, 2014. We've contacted 2K Games for comment and will update when we hear back.

The official web presence for the shooter/RPG variant of XCOM, a reboot concept that never seemed to capture gamers' imagination from the moment it was announced in 2011 through its E3 2011 and several delays, has been taken down and, further, the game's YouTube videos also have been set to private. 2K Games is not saying anything. Digital Trends noticed the removal yesterday. In late March, Superannuation noted that Take-Two Interactive (2K's parent company) registered four domains that pointed to a rebranding of this game as "The Bureau." A 2K Games representative refused comment to Polygon. I reached out to the same guy, just in case. I saw the XCOM reboot at E3 two years ago and found it intriguing, though I'll cop to being a sucker for period pieces and having zero investment in the original series (I adored Enemy Unknown, nominating it for our GOTY, which it won.) If this is being taken offline or made over, that's disappointing. But it could be that Take-Two's decision is based less on the feedback, almost universally negative, from hardcore X-COM fans, and more on the strong and even surprising success that XCOM: Enemy Unknown has since seen. To have a markedly different game under the same nameplate could confuse customers or, worse, water down the brand, especially if an unproven concept comes in as a clunker. I'll also note that two weeks ago saw the end of a fiscal quarter, which is typically when things get axed. Take-Two will discuss its quarterly performance in May, and titles planned for release in the coming year. Something is Going on with the XCOM Shooter [Digital Trends]

I hate Monday mornings and this one was threatening to be one of the worst. My brain is still on the pillow and my body is refusing to obey the most basic of commands. Funny how a forty second video can turn everything around. Kotaku spotted that Firaxis’ panel at PAX East contained a short video that relates to the XCOM developer’s next “big project”. I reckon it might be time to turn our attention from the skies to the seas. My brain has lurched back into my skull and begun to gibber in an excited fashion. Watch below.

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#firaxis Firaxis teased this very small snippet of a trailer for what looks like something XCOM related. A new game? DLC? They mentioned it was their next big project, so I would wager a guess to the next title in the series. For now, your guess is as good as mine. More »

XCOM, the shooter from 2K Marin, is still a part of Take-Two's future launch plans, scheduled for fiscal year 2014. Take-Two's fiscal 2014 runs from April 1, 2013, to March 31, 2014. This is the same release window XCOM received in May 2012, which is also the last time we heard any significant news about the game.

XCOM has been delayed twice, from an initial launch date of March 6, 2012, and now past its second window in FY 2013. Developer Firaxis launched XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the strategy game, last year also under 2K Games, and we thought it was quite a boon to the franchise, even without any first-person alien-gunning.

#bestof2012 I played more games in 2012 than any other year of my life. It was a weird—but thoroughly wonderful—year, and one that upset a lot of my expectations. A lot of games I'd assumed would be amazing fell short of the mark, while others came out of nowhere to become fast favorites. More »

#2012yearinvideogames Sure, 2012 was a year rife with disappointments. But it was also filled with surprises of the best sort. Since we brought everyone down last week with our list of the biggest disappointments of the year, we thought it only proper to also share the best, most welcome surprises. More »

#superannuationsassortedscoopery No topic appeared in the rumor mill this year as much as the coming next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft. More »

#opinion In a fit of frustration over Hotline Miami and the way gamers discuss violent games, I ended up talking to game critic/provocateur Cara Ellison. She adores Hotline Miami, you see. More »

#xcom I never saw this on a shelf as kid. I know this, because if I had, I'd have bought it. More »

#chaos Julian Gollop co-created the original X-Com, many years ago, and was not optimistic about the chance of this year's XCOM turning out well. But XCOM turned out to be a smart game and was very well-received. Nearly everyone loves it. More »

#xcom Even though the game is nice enough to tell you the odds every time you squeeze the trigger in XCOM, there's still an underlying feeling of "how the hell does this work", or sometimes "WHY THE HELL DID THAT JUST MISS". More »

#xcom Did you like that XCOM art we posted yesterday? Well, one of the artists behind it was Piero Macgowan, and tonight we're going to taking a closer look at his work. More »

#xcom While a few pieces were shown here and there in the lead-up to the game's release, what you're about to see is a collection of mostly never-before-seen concept art from the production of one of the year's surprise hits. More »

#xcom In an honest and upfront piece over on serious news outlet Something Awful, the President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, has explained the reasons behind his country's highly unpopular (with XCOM leaders) withdrawal from the XCOM project. More »

#burningquestions This fall, we've been getting the best sort of déja vu. From Dishonored to XCOM, many of the best games of the fall have learned from past classics and reworked them into smart, satisfying, fresh-feeling games. Is this new appreciation for 90's classics a trend, or an anomaly? What exactly does "old-school" mean? Does the future of gaming depend on this current crop selling well? Is Mitt Romney actually a giant spider? More »

#bestofmetacritic Welcome back to "Backhanded Box Quotes," a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic and elsewhere. More »

#poll There are lots of games out today. Lots and lots of games. Stealthy assassins, anti-alien defense squads. Kinect wizards. Lots of games! More »

#xcom Aliens? Come on, guys. No one actually believes aliens are coming to kill all of you humans, with your multitudinous genitalia. More »

Part 13 of IGN's Walkthrough for XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Part 14 of IGN's Walkthrough for XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Part 13 of IGN's Walkthrough for XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Part 12 of IGN's Walkthrough for XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Part 11 of IGN's Walkthrough for XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Part 10 of IGN's Walkthrough for XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Part 9 of IGN's Walkthrough for XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Part 8 of IGN's Walkthrough for XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Part 7 of IGN's Walkthrough for XCOM: Enemy Unknown.