XCOM Creator Praises Epic Games Store

gamerant.com:

Way back in 1994, Mythos games released the first XCOM game, X-COM: UFO Defense with Julian Gollop as the lead developer and programmer alongside brother Nick Gollop. They followed up this effort with X-COM: Apocalypse in 1997. Mythos Games closed its doors in 2001, with Gollop ending up working at various companies including Ubisoft, and the XCOM franchise went on a prolonged hiatus.

The first game in the franchise was eventually remade as XCOM: Enemy Unknown in 2012 by Firaxis Games under publisher 2K Games. A sequel, titled XCOM 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 called Phoenix Point, which was marketed as a spiritual successor to the original X-COM: UFO Defense and 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 Point was 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.