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XCOM: Enemy Unknown coming to iOS

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Xcomipad

From the very first time I sat down to play Firaxis’  delightful and terribly stressful XCOM: Enemy Unknown reboot, I thought it would be the perfect fit for the iPad; because if there’s one thing better than killing aliens, it’s killing aliens while you’re on the toilet. It’s happening, so expect to experience a great deal of numb-legged pins-and-needles in the near future.

Revealed at Pax East this weekend, Firaxis said the game would be coming to Apple’s tablets and smartphones later this year. the good news is that the game will be ported completely intact, with not a single feature or mechanic missing. It’ll also include the Elite Soldier DLC and, naturally, be optimised for touch-screen.

“All the tactical, strategic gameplay that you have experienced on the PC and consoles has now been optimized for iOS devices,” said Firaxis’ enigmatic Jake Solomon.

As a fully-featured game, it’ll be getting a fully-featured price. We don’t quite know what that is yet, but it’s probably not going to be 99c.

“It’s going to be priced appropriately for what it is. It’s going to be a premium price point. It is the game. It is the full game,” Solomon told Joystiq, adding that the game won’t feature any dreaded in-app purchases.

There’s no Android version planned, but the idea hasn’t been ruled out.

Last Updated: March 25, 2013

25 Comments

  1. Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

    March 25, 2013 at 09:06

    Always the love on IOS. *sigh* Why are devs so scared of Droid?

    Reply

    • AndriyP

      March 25, 2013 at 09:08

      Its not the Droid they looking for?

      Reply

      • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

        March 25, 2013 at 09:09

        I lol’d

        Reply

    • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

      March 25, 2013 at 09:14

      It’s because iOS devices are much, much more homogenous, whereas droid devices are developed by a multitude of companies, each with vastly differing specs. There’s an astounding level of fragmentation, which is the downside of it being such an open platform. .

      While it wouldn’t be hard to get running on android, getting it running right on every single capable droid device is quite an endeavour.

      Reply

      • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

        March 25, 2013 at 09:15

        Guess you have a point *Admits that that’s where IOS has an edge over Android*

        Curse you logic!

        Reply

      • umar bastra

        March 25, 2013 at 09:24

        Indeed, But I see more and more Mobile games are coming out with graphics options too. Which I guess can maybe help in the deployment to driods

        Reply

        • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

          March 25, 2013 at 09:31

          I think you’re right – and treating droid development more like PC dev and making things scalable is the way to go; unfortunately, it adds a lot of dev time and expense – with no guarantees of returns, especially with the ridiculous ease and widespread proliferation of piracy on the platform. (not that Piracy isn;t an issue on iOS either)

          http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/176214/The_Android_piracy_problem.php

          Reply

          • umar bastra

            March 25, 2013 at 09:39

            Piracy on Mobile is one of the things that I find Horribly infuriating because it’s making that companies go in the ‘Freemium’ direction and man I hate Freemium games.

            In terms of dev times, indeed it does add a lot of time to development and there is a High Risk involved which is why you would hardly see Android only releases. games like Chaos Rings (btw, Is an utterly breath taking game, sorry for advertising lol) and other SE games all appear on Ios first and then gets ported to Android, which I guess mitigates some of the risk

      • Admiral Chief Erwin

        March 25, 2013 at 09:41

        Pfff, just make it work on Samsung, cuz that is the ONLY Android platform I am interested in 😛

        Reply

      • FoxOneZA

        March 25, 2013 at 11:28

        Nope they don’t have to get it to work on every platform. They’ll just leave the irrelevant ones out like with Vice City.

        Reply

  2. TriangularRoom

    March 25, 2013 at 09:10

    Genius. The game seems well suited to touch screen play.

    Reply

  3. umar bastra

    March 25, 2013 at 09:25

    wish I could play this on my S3 🙁 looks too sweet

    Reply

  4. TechniKyle

    March 25, 2013 at 09:26

    Loving this game, but I need to take a break after I lost two of my best units… Sigh…

    Reply

    • AndriyP

      March 25, 2013 at 09:27

      There is no time for mourning soldier!!!

      Reply

    • Andre116

      March 25, 2013 at 10:07

      You lost 2 units?? I took 5 veterans into battle last weekend and 4 came back in body bags. War is hell.

      Reply

      • TechniKyle

        March 25, 2013 at 10:52

        I don’t like to lose anything. I wanted to beat the game with no units lost… apparently that’s impoosible.

        Reply

  5. Uberutang

    March 25, 2013 at 09:35

    Tried it on pc, felt like a touch optimized game that was ported to PC.
    Guess I was not far wrong.

    Reply

  6. Admiral Chief Erwin

    March 25, 2013 at 09:41

    I still need to get this game, dammit!

    Reply

    • Andre116

      March 25, 2013 at 13:35

      You absolutely need to make a plan to get this. I have not been this invested in a games since ME3. I bought it on Friday and have not seen sunlight since today.

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Erwin

        March 25, 2013 at 13:44

        Lemme know if you see it on special somewhere

        Reply

  7. Andre116

    March 25, 2013 at 10:09

    Finally bought this game this weekend after the price dropped a bit. (R365 for xbox at BT games’s online store). I have not really seen sunlight this weekend. Awesome game. I’d highly recommend it.

    Reply

  8. OVG

    March 25, 2013 at 12:40

    It will be in my 360 Library but just to many games and to little time. The next gen can wait another 6 years.

    Reply

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