Sorry XCOM fans – according to XCOM Series Director Jake Solomon, it looks like you’ll have to wait a little longer. In a recent interview with VideoGamesChronicle after discussing Firaxis Games’ upcoming release, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, the topic turned to the possibility of a new installment of the XCOM franchise. Solomon acknowledged the demand for a new XCOM game, but also claimed there were no plans for development at this time.
“Of course, you can ask (laughs), you can join your voice to the chorus ringing out from the hills… I personally have no information on that right now and I say that because, truly, yesterday I was working on Morbius’ abbey outfits and recolours, so I am not working on it. I don’t have any secret agenda, I don’t know anything about XCOM at this point.”
While the latest XCOM game, XCOM Chimera Squad released in 2020, it has been nearly seven years since the last mainline entry in the franchise, XCOM 2. Both XCOM 2 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown were released to wide critical and audience praise, and the game boasts a large audience clamoring for more of the iconic franchise. Fans shouldn’t feel too discouraged, however – Solomon has reaffirmed in other interviews in 2022 that XCOM had more life in it yet. It’s only a matter of time until Firaxis has enough manpower and resources to begin work on a potential XCOM 3.
XCOM is a sci-fi real-time strategy franchise where the players must defend the Earth from oncoming alien invasions. X-COM: UFO Defense, the first title in the series released in 1994, became a cult classic that spawned numerous spiritual successors and influenced popular real-time strategy games after it. The series was relaunched and reimagined with XCOM: Enemy Unknown in 2012, which generated new interest in a franchise that has been struggling for decades.