Greg Tito said:
"Turn-based strategy games were no longer the hottest thing on planet Earth," Hartmann said. "But this is not just a commercial thing - strategy games are just not contemporary."
Erm...what?
Of course it's a commercial thing. You're changing the game so it will appeal to a larger audience (read: sell better). That's about as commercial as you can get.
Greg Tito said:
He continued explaining his position through a comparison to the music business. "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."
...whaaaaaaat? Ray Charles was alive and performing as late as 2003. He sounded pretty much the same as he always did. You don't change the fundamentals of someone's style because the time itself changes. I doubt Frank Sinatra would have changed to be more like Eminem and remain "the hottest thing on planet Earth," and Ray Charles certainly didn't transform into Kanye West.
Greg Tito said:
"That's what we are trying to do. To renew Xcom but in line with what this generation of gamers want," he said.
But shouldn't you be asking what, you know, Xcom fans want? They're your primary market. The people that you're marketing to by making it a FPS, inversely, probably aren't people who will recognize the Xcom name. In other words, you're adding another off-brand title to FPS Mountain.
Let's say that 'Crisco [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisco]' wanted to get in on the hand sanitizer market. Instead of, say, creating a new line of hand sanitizers, they change their entire line from cooking oil to hand sanitizers. This will have two possible outcomes:
1) People unfamiliar with Crisco will pass it over in favor of more proven brands. Result: no money.
2) People familiar with Crisco won't buy it because it doesn't do what they originally bought it for. Result: no money.
3) People familiar with Crisco who buy it will be pissed off that their cooking oil makes their food reek of disinfectant, and swear vengeance against Crisco. Result: limited early money, then guaranteed loss of future sales.
Greg Tito said:
"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."
Wait a second. Instead of stating an answer to the question, he gave a suspiciously specific denial that they're not trying to cash in on the series' name.
To me, this is like a shifty dinner guest screaming that he didn't poison your food when you go to ask him to pass the salt.
I think this guy was super baked when he made this press release. Like,
super baked.
And very soon, Subversion.
