He means after, which is kind of true. XCOM barely got any talk in 2013, IIRC, the expansion didn't even get a QL because they thought it "didn't add much" (which is... questionable), and Patrick actually pointed out how he was seemingly the only one to be more open to turn based strategy games afterwards (the context being nobody else in early 2013 being interested in Fire Emblem but him).
EDIT: nvm, there was a QL! I can't remember why I thought there wasn't. They seemed lukewarm or disinterested in it and my brain exaggerated that I guess. Whoops.
XCOM was my favorite game of that year and one of my favorite of the generation as well, and I also didn't bother with the expansion. Playing through that game on classic ironman was such a fucking ordeal that I can't imagine ever doing it again, but at the same time I would never play the game any other way since they harsh nature of that mode is what really made me love the game. A lot of the stuff in Enemy Within sounds cool and that Long War mod sounds even better, but I can't see myself giving it another go for a couple more years.