XCOM 2 is finally coming to consoles! 2K Games announced today that the popular RTS title will make it's way to Xbox One and PS4. Here is the brief announcement from 2K:
2K today announced that XCOM 2 is coming to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 6, 2016 in North America and September 9, 2016 internationally for $59.99. Additionally, 2K and Firaxis Games have partnered with industry veterans The Workshop , now a dedicated subsidiary of Skydance Media, to bring the title to consoles and ensure the XCOM 2 experience meets the same high standards of the beloved series.
For XCOM fans like myself this is kind of crazy news. I played XCOM: Enemy Unknown on both Xbox 360 and PC and had anticipated doing the same for the sequel. But as the launch neared Firaxis was unequivocal in its assertion that the game was not being considered for consoles.
“When we have our meetings, when we talk about stuff, we only talk about PC,” Creative Director Jake Solomon told IGN last year . “Our expertise here is PC. That's our home, and that's where we're really comfortable.”
XCOM’s home appeared to be PC too. The game showed consistent engagement on Steam and maintained a steady number of active players, but console sales and engagement slumped more and more over time. When it was announced that XCOM 2 would be PC-only, it made sense.
But now we’re looking at a console release in September and, to be honest, I’m not quite sure why. My hope is that the whole “console mods” thing makes it's way to the XCOM franchise as the subtext to all that long term PC engagement is that mods kept the game fresh. The Long War, specifically, drew me back into dozens of hours of gameplay. But according to 2K the success of XCOM 2 is what drove this console intiative.
“The incredible reception of XCOM 2 has been rewarding and humbling for the team, and we’ve known console fans have been clamoring to play the game too,” Solomon said in today’s press release. “As avid console players ourselves, we’re excited to work with The Workshop to bring XCOM 2 to all of our fans.”
2K is enticing fans with the usual pre-order goodies. Fans who pre-order the vanilla XCOM 2 get the Resistance Warrior Pack, which has some soldier customization options and a new XCOM recruit who has some special shit going on. If you pre-order the XCOM 2 Digital Deluxe Edition you get all that stuff, plus access to all the paid DLC that’s been released so far.
Will you be pre-ordering the game? Do you want to play it on consoles at all? Isn’t the Viper King just the fucking worst? Let us know in the comments!
