Firaxisâ summer is going to be quite busy. They just announced today at their PAX East panel that theyâll be bringing the fantastic strategy game from the PC/consoles over to the iOS platform.
They showed off a quick demo of what the game will look like on your palm-friendly device, but weâre told that itâs basically the entire game carried over to mobile. Weâll have impressions for you as soon as we can get our hands on it. No word on pricing yet.
UPDATE: I spoke with Firaxisâ Jake Solomon on the show floor today while he showed me XCOM: Enemy Unknown on an iPad. He opened up the familiar map of the XCOM base, and swiping between locations seemed like a natural fit. So did the gameplay, which is predominantly cursor-driven and so perfect for taps and swipes on a touch screen.
But I got a few other interesting tidbits, too, so Iâll share them here with some bullet points:
Developmentâor the porting processâof the iOS edition started at the tail-end of development on the PC/console versions of XCOM: Enemy Unknown
The iOS versions feature the same UI as the game, with a few tweaks for things like swiping, but the iPhone version will differ from the iPad version for obvious reasons like the limitation of screen real estate. Canât squeeze in as much details on a tinier phone.
Solomon couldnât say what iPad/iPhone editions the game will launch for, but he did say that heâs seen the game run on multiple versions of the iPad.
The total number of maps you can play on are less than what youâd find on the PC/console editions.
Weâll share more when we learn more.
