Way back in 1994, Mythos games released the firstXCOMgame,X-COM: UFO Defensewith Julian Gollop as the lead developer and programmer alongside brother Nick Gollop. They followed up this effort withX-COM: Apocalypsein 1997. Mythos Games closed its doors in 2001, with Gollop ending up working at various companies including Ubisoft, and theXCOMfranchise went on a prolonged hiatus.
The first game in the franchise was eventually remade asXCOM: Enemy Unknownin 2012 by Firaxis Gamesunder publisher 2K Games. A sequel, titledXCOM 2, was released in 2016. Both games were well received by fans and critics and sold well for the company. However, they were made without Julian Gollop’s involvement. In 2013, Gollop co-founded a company known as Snapshot Games. In 2016, the developer revealed a new game calledPhoenix Point, which was marketed as a spiritual successor to the originalX-COM: UFO Defenseand partially funded through crowdfunding efforts. Unfortunately, its 2019 release was somewhat controversial.
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In late 2018, Epic Games launched its own digital storefront known as the Epic Games Store and was arguably the first real competition that Steam had encountered. The company then began courting other publishers by offering exclusivity incentives and a larger cut of the game’s storefront revenue.Epic Games Store’s exclusivity deals, however, remain controversial among gamers. Snapshot Games’Phoenix Pointwas a game that took one of these deals, signing a one-year exclusivity deal with the then-new digital storefront. The company reportedly received an additional $2.25M from Epic Games for the deal, and it’s a decision that Julian Gallop defends to this day.
In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Julian Gallop defended the decision to make the one-yearexclusivity deal with Epic Games. During the interview, he talked about the early days of the Epic Store’s promotions and the hostility towards it. A lot of the hostility had to do with the conspiracy theories regarding Chinese spyware, a reference to the Chinese-based multinational conglomerate company, Tencent, which owns roughly 40% of Epic Games. He then went on to praise the storefront, saying that it has been great for independent studios, and how the money from the company helped the quality of the game itself. His statement can be found below:
“When we did our Epic exclusive—this was the very early days of the Epic store promotion—yeah, there was a lot of hostility. And also a lot of conspiracy theories about it. The whole Chinese spyware and all the rest of it. Obviously, that’s settled down a bit, and Epic has been great for many indies, in fact. It was another avenue to get funding, of course, which is very, very difficult to get with an indie studio. So overall, it was very positive for Phoenix Point itself. We had extra money that would go into making the game, which we didn’t have otherwise. So it really did help the quality of the game itself, helped us get it released sooner rather than later and enabled us to put more content in so it was good.”
Phoenix Pointwas ultimately released on the Epic Games Store on December 3rd, 2019. At the time of its release, it received mixed to positive reviews from critics with some negatively comparing it toXCOM: Enemy Unknownand its sequel. The game would eventually release on Steam a year later with aPlayStation 4 and Xbox One version announced in 2021. TheXCOMfranchise released one more installment, titledXCOM: Chimera Squadbut seems to have gone on another hiatus. Developer Firaxis Games is currently hard at work onMarvel’s Midnight Sonsand there is no telling when they may release another installment in theXCOMfranchise.
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