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XCOM

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Not to be confused with X.com or EXCOMM.
This article is about the video game series. For the board game of the same name, see XCOM (board game). For the NASA X-ray communications experiment, see NICER § XCOM.
XCOM
Genre(s)
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)
  • MicroProse (1994–1998)
  • Hasbro Interactive (1998–2001)
  • Infogrames (2001–2005)
  • 2K Games (2005–present)
Creator(s)Julian Gollop
Platform(s)MS-DOS, Amiga, Amiga CD32, PlayStation, Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, OS X, iOS, Android, Linux, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
First releaseUFO: Enemy Unknown
March 1, 1994
Latest releaseXCOM: Chimera Squad
April 24, 2020

XCOM (originally called X-COM) is a science fiction video game franchise featuring an elite international organization tasked with countering alien invasions of Earth. The series began with the strategy video game X-COM: UFO Defense created by Julian Gollop's Mythos Games and MicroProse in 1994. The original lineup by MicroProse included six published and at least two canceled games, as well as two novels. The X-COM series, in particular its original entry, achieved a sizable cult following and has influenced many other video games; including the creation of a number of clones, spiritual successors, and unofficial remakes.

A reboot series was published by 2K Games, beginning with the strategy video game XCOM: Enemy Unknown, developed by Firaxis Games and released in 2012 to critical and commercial success. It was followed by the prequel The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and the sequel XCOM 2.

Games

Title Release Platforms Developer Publisher
UFO: Enemy Unknown
(a.k.a. X-COM: UFO Defense) 		1994 DOS
Amiga
CD32
PlayStation
Windows 		Mythos Games
MicroProse 		MicroProse
X-COM: Terror from the Deep 1995 DOS
PlayStation
Windows TRAVIS SCOTT 		MicroProse MicroProse
X-COM: Apocalypse 1997 DOS
Windows 		Mythos Games
MicroProse 		MicroProse
X-COM: Interceptor 1998 Windows MicroProse MicroProse
X-COM: First Alien Invasion 1999 Windows Hasbro Interactive Hasbro
X-COM: Enforcer 2001 Windows Hasbro Interactive Infogrames
X-COM: Genesis Unreleased Windows Hasbro Interactive None
X-COM: Alliance Unreleased Windows Hasbro Interactive
Infogrames 		None
XCOM: Enemy Unknown 2012 Android
iOS
Linux
OS X
PlayStation 3
PlayStation Vita
Windows
Xbox 360 		Firaxis Games 2K Games
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
(previously known as XCOM) 		2013 OS X
PlayStation 3
Windows
Xbox 360 		Irrational Games
2K Australia
2K Marin 		2K Games
XCOM: Enemy Within
(expansion of XCOM: Enemy Unknown) 		2013 Android
iOS
Linux
OS X
PlayStation 3
PlayStation Vita
Windows
Xbox 360 		Firaxis Games 2K Games
XCOM 2
(sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown)[1] 		2016 Android
iOS
Linux
OS X
PlayStation 4
Switch
Windows
Xbox One 		Firaxis Games 2K Games
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen
(expansion of XCOM 2) 		2017 Android
iOS
Linux
macOS
PlayStation 4
Switch
Windows
Xbox One 		Firaxis Games 2K Games
XCOM: Chimera Squad 2020 Windows Firaxis Games 2K Games

Original X-COM games

{{VG Series Reviews |updated = November 17, 2011 |gr = yes |mc = no

Other media

The board game at the GDC 2015

Literature

Two X-COM novels have been published based on the first game in the series: Diane Duane's X-COM: UFO Defense - A Novel (1995, ISBN 0-7615-0235-1) and Vladimir Vasilyev's Enemy Unknown (1997). The reboot series' novel is titled XCOM 2: Resurrection by Greg Keyes and was published in 2015, bridging the plots of XCOM and its sequel.[2]

MicroProse's manual/documentation writer John Possidente also wrote three short stories, "Decommissioning", "Manley's Deposition", and "Moray in the Wreck", taking place between the events of the first two games in the series. More recently, X-COM co-designer Dave Ellis and artist Jon McCoy released a free online tribute digital comic titled Deep Rising, with music created by X-COM composer John Broomhall.[3]

Board game

A board game entitled XCOM: The Board Game, designed by Eric M. Lang and based on the 2012 reboot, was released on January 28, 2015, by Fantasy Flight Games.[4]

Intellectual property rights

The trademark for the X-COM name was filed on May 25, 1995, by MicroProse Software. According to Julian Gollop, "They wanted us to do a deal where we would sign over any rights that we might have in return for some cash plus a high royalty on X-COM: Apocalypse. They more or less insisted on it, otherwise they were threatening to cancel the Apocalypse project, so there was a lot of bluff involved."[5] Following the acquisition and subsequent merger of MicroProse with Hasbro, the X-COM intellectual property (IP) was also transferred to Hasbro Interactive on August 19, 1998. Due to financial difficulties, Hasbro Interactive was sold to Infogrames Entertainment SA on January 29, 2001. As part of this transfer, the X-COM IP was legally transferred to Infogrames on December 21, 2001 (shortly thereafter, Infogrames was renamed Atari SA). In 2005, Atari SA transferred several IPs to Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.[6] and X-COM was transferred with them on June 12, 2005.

The X-COM IP is currently owned by Take-Two and its subsidiaries;[7] by 2007, first rumors emerged that Irrational Games (who are owned by Take-Two) were developing a new X-COM title[8] (this game eventually became The Bureau: XCOM Declassified). In May 2007, 2K Games (a subsidiary of Take-Two) inherited the X-COM franchise and re-released Terror from the Deep on Steam. In September 2008, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Apocalypse, Interceptor and Enforcer were also re-released as downloadable titles. 2K Games' XCOM, which had been in development since 2003 (prior to the IP acquisition),[9] was finally completed and released in 2012.

Inspired titles

Because of the series' popularity, various other developers have created spiritual successor games similar in theme and tone of the X-COM games (sometimes called "X-COM clones";[10][11] Julian Gollop also himself called turn-based tactical game genre in general as "sons of Rebelstar" in a reference to one of his earlier games[12]). The level to which they borrow from the original series varies.

Commercial games

  • Abomination: The Nemesis Project is a real-time tactics / action game developed by Hothouse Creations and released by Eidos Interactive for the PC in 1999 that has been touted as "X-COM meets Day of the Dead in real-time."[13]
  • Aliens versus Humans is a UFO: Enemy Unknown clone for the iPhone, iPad and Android.[14] Gollop highlighted it an example of "indie remakes" in his "X-Com legacy" chart.[15]
  • Guardians: Agents of Justice was an unreleased game by Simtex and MicroProse,[16] which was described as "a superhero version of X-COM."[17][18]
  • Incubation: Time Is Running Out is a turn-based combat PC game that was considered to be "what X-Com Apocalypse should have been".[19] It was developed and released by German company Blue Byte in 1997.
  • Isomer was an indie strategy game project, currently abandoned,[20] that was also heavily influenced by the X-COM series as well as other games such as Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft. It blends realtime strategy combat with world exploration and sandbox gameplay.[21]
  • UFO: Aftermath is a 2003 single-player PC strategy and real-time tactics game which was heavily influenced by the X-COM series and used elements of the Mythos Games' canceled The Dreamland Chronicles. It was created by Czech company ALTAR Interactive and published by Tri Synergy.
  • UFO: Extraterrestrials, a PC strategy / turn-based tactics game that is an unofficial sequel to the X-COM games, developed by Czech developer Chaos Concept and released by Tri Synergy in 2007.
    • The follow-up game, UFO2Extraterrestrials: Shadows over Earth was originally supposed to be released in Q4 of 2012, but as of 2021 has no official release date.[22] It still remains in development simultaneously with UFO2Extraterrestrials: Battle for Mercury which is announced to launch Spring of 2021.[23]
  • UFO Online (unrelated to UFO Online: Fight for Earth) is a free-to-play, tactical MMORPG that is available only in Russian.[24]
  • UFO Online: Fight for Earth is a Steam and browser-based massively multiplayer tactical game.[25] Gollop called it "actually more a clone of Incubation."[26] It can be played in the free-to-play system using a micropayment system to generate revenue.
  • Xenonauts is a PC strategy game by British independent studio Goldhawk Interactive, again heavily influenced by the X-COM series. It is being marketed as a Cold War-era (1979 instead of 1999) re-imagining of the original UFO: Enemy Unknown and an answer to 2K's The Bureau: XCOM Declassified which alienated some of the X-COM fanbase due to its FPS-based gameplay.[27] The game missed several release dates, but was finally released in June 2014.

The franchise was also referenced in the Civilization series of strategy video games that had partially inspired X-COM in first place. The original game received an unofficial sequel in the 1997 expansion set Civ II: Fantastic Worlds for MicroProse's Civilization II, in a scenario set on the Phobos moon of Mars.[28] Firaxis' Civilization V features a unit type named XCOM Squad.

Fan games

Fan-remake projects for UFO: Enemy Unknown have included X-com - Last Hope (a mod of Half-Life 2 released in 2006),[29] UFO: The Two Sides (development halted in 2011 due to copyright issues),[30] UFO: Cydonia's Fall (canceled in 2012),[31] X-COM: Origin (canceled in 2013),[32] and The Rebel Squad (an also defunct project by Sam Liu).[33]

  • UFO: Alien Invasion is an open source, cross-platform, 3D strategy / turn-based tactics fan game heavily influenced by the X-COM series.
    • A similar open source game, but which never left a pre-release phase (last updated in 2011) was X-Force: Fight for Destiny.[34]
    • Another, Project Xenocide, was aborted in 2010.[35]
  • Xenowar is an open source, simple tactical game for the Android and Windows.[36]
  • X-Com: Tactical is a board game reproducing the squad tactics element of the first game.[37]

See also

  • Laser Squad: a science fiction tactical game by the original creators of X-COM and an immediate predecessor of X-COM (UFO: Enemy Unknown originally began development as Laser Squad 2[38]).
  • Rebelstar series: precursor games to both Laser Squad and the X-COM series, also created by the same developers.

References

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference xcom2-announce was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-07-31. Retrieved 2015-09-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ "Deep Rising comic - a tribute to X-Com". comic.strategycore.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  4. ^ "UFOs Sighted!". Fantasy Flight Games. 28 January 2015. Archived from the original on 31 January 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  5. ^ "Interview With XCOM Creator Julian Gollop". Nowgamer.com. 2011-08-30. Archived from the original on 2012-09-06. Retrieved 2014-02-04.
  6. ^ "USPTO Assignments on the Web". Assignments.uspto.gov. Archived from the original on 2015-03-17. Retrieved 2014-02-04.
  7. ^ "USPTO Assignments on the Web". Assignments.uspto.gov. Archived from the original on 2015-03-17. Retrieved 2014-02-04.
  8. ^ Yurik, Poor. "Irrational Games Developing X-COM Title? - Video Game News, Videos and File Downloads for PC and Console Games at". Shacknews.com. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-02-04.
  9. ^ Pitts, Russ (2013-01-31). "The Making of XCOM's Jake Solomon". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2014-02-09. Retrieved 2014-02-04.
  10. ^ Meer, Alec (16 April 2010). "Xenonauts: The X-COM Anti-Apocalypse?". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  11. ^ "Games Like XCOM". Games Finder. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
  12. ^ "Julian Gollop: Sons of Rebelstar". Pocket Tactics. 2012-06-01. Archived from the original on 2013-08-27. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  13. ^ "Abomination: The Nemesis Project - ESCMag Review". Escmag.com. 1999-12-15. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  14. ^ "Aliens versus Humans / retro iPhone game". Aliensvshumansapp.com. Archived from the original on 2013-09-04. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  15. ^ Classic Games Postmortem - XCOM: UFO Defense Archived 2014-11-03 at the Wayback Machine, presentation of Julian Gollop on the GDC, March 28, 2013 (GameSpot).
  16. ^ "Guardians: Agents of Justice (PC - Cancelled)". Unseen 64. 2010-06-06. Archived from the original on 2012-06-04. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  17. ^ "Curse of the Superheroes? - IGN". Uk.ign.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  18. ^ "NG Alphas: Agents of Justice". Next Generation. No. 33. Imagine Media. September 1997. pp. 90–91.
  19. ^ "Incubation Reviews". Blue Byte. Archived from the original on 2011-01-09. Retrieved 2010-06-23.
  20. ^ "Isomer Steam forums discussion". October 20, 2016. Archived from the original on October 21, 2016.
  21. ^ "Isomer the alphafunded XCOM-like indie game". ionisingsoftware.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2014-06-25. Retrieved 2014-06-12.
  22. ^ "UFO2Extraterrestrials: Battle for Mercury".
  23. ^ http://www.ufo2extraterrestrials.com/
  24. ^ "UFO Online - News". Ufo-game.ru. Archived from the original on 2013-09-07. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  25. ^ "UFO Online – Fight for Earth website". Ufo-online.gamigo.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-02. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  26. ^ "Julian Gollop on XCOM - Edge Magazine". Edge-online.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-26. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  27. ^ Yoon, Andrew. "Xenonauts capitalizes on XCOM rage". Joystiq. Archived from the original on 2015-02-12.
  28. ^ Michael E. Ryan, Civ II: Fantastic Worlds Review Archived December 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, GameSpot, December 18, 1997
  29. ^ "X-com - Last Hope mod for Half-Life 2". Mod DB. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  30. ^ "UFO: The Two Sides". Ufotts.ninex.info. Archived from the original on 2013-08-10. Retrieved 2013-08-22. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 2011-10-12 suggested (help)
  31. ^ "UFO: Cydonia's Fall - Temporary Site". 2012-04-12. Archived from the original on 2012-04-12. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  32. ^ "X-COM: Origin". Xcomorigin.com. 2012-02-15. Archived from the original on 2013-07-18. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  33. ^ Arne Niklas Jansson (2012-04-17). "PSG RebelSquad". Archived from the original on 2012-04-17. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  34. ^ Christian Reich (2011-08-31). "X-Force: Fight For Destiny - Home". Xforce-online.de. Archived from the original on 2013-07-19. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  35. ^ "News". Project Xenocide. Archived from the original on 2003-06-19. Retrieved 2013-08-22. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 2012-01-14 suggested (help)
  36. ^ "Official Xenowar website". Xenowar.net. Archived from the original on 2013-09-04. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  37. ^ "X-Com: Tactical | Board Game". BoardGameGeek. Archived from the original on 2012-03-31. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
  38. ^ "Interview With XCOM Creator Julian Gollop". NowGamer. 2011-08-30. Archived from the original on 2012-09-06. Retrieved 2013-08-22.
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