Do you like turn-based strategy games? Well, according to 2K’s Christoph Hartmann, you’re a deluded fool clinging desperately to a tatty anachronism. He didn’t say it in quite those words, but that’s totally what he means.
Talking to MCVUK about the company’s somewhat controversial decision to turn its X-COM reboot from a turn-based strategy game into an FPS, Hartmann says it’s all about keeping up with the times.
“The ‘90s generation of gamers all love X-COM and we own the IP, so we thought OK, what do we do with it? Every studio we had wanted to do it and each one had its own spin on it. But the problem was that turn-based strategy games were no longer the hottest thing on planet Earth. But this is not just a commercial thing – strategy games are just not contemporary,” he explains.
“I use the example of music artists. Look at someone old school like Ray Charles, if he would make music today it would still be Ray Charles but he would probably do it more in the style of Kanye West. Bringing Ray Charles back is all fine and good, but it just needs to move on, although the core essence will still be the same.
“That’s what we are trying to do. To renew X-COM but in line with what this generation of gamers want. The team behind it is asking themselves every day: ‘Is it true to the values of the franchise?’ It’s not a case of cashing in on the name. We just need to renew it because times are changing.”
Or maybe turn-based strategy games aren’t “contemporary” because nobody seems to be making them anymore. Does that mean we don’t want to play them? Jagged Alliance fans, ASSEMBLE!
Do you love turn-based strategy games? Or are they dated? Lets us know in the forums
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