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[Draugoth]

​

Jake Solomon, the director of Marvel’s Midnight Suns and the XCOM franchise, is leaving Firaxis after more than two decades.

In addition, studio head Steve Martin will also be leaving the company after 25 years, publisher 2K announced on Friday. He will be replaced by chief operating officer, Heather Hazen.

I’m embarking on a new chapter; however, I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfill my dreams at Firaxis Games,” said Solomon. “I’m thankful to everyone who enjoyed XCOM and Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and to my development and publishing partners who helped bring those games to life.

Jake revolutionized tactical turn-based games and continually raised the bar for storytelling in the strategy genre,” David Ismailer, President of 2K. “We have deep appreciation for his work and can’t wait to see what he does next.

The departures follows the disappointing launch of Marvel’s Midnight Suns. While the game was well-received critically, all versions were heavily discounted within a month of release, suggesting that its publisher had been disappointed with its commercial performance.

 

[lh032]

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

I don't fuck with Firaxis games outside of Civ (and CivCity Rome). I just hope Civ7 continues with the tradition of odd numbered Civ games being vastly superior to even numbered ones.

 

[diffusionx]

I guess Midnight Suns was a bigger bomb than they let on. Obviously does not bode well for the future of XCOM.

 

[hlm666]

I guess Midnight Suns was a bigger bomb than they let on. Obviously does not bode well for the future of XCOM.

They should have made an xcom game, i'm not sure people into marvel are the type of audience that would go hell yeh new turn based game i'm in. I had a dipshit nephew buy this and refund it in like 2 minutes because he thought it was "like a diablo game". Yeh I know it was clear if you watched a trailer, he's too young to drink so he can't have been drunk.

 

[diffusionx]

They should have made an xcom game, i'm not sure people into marvel are the type of audience that would go hell yeh new turn based game i'm in. I had a dipshit nephew buy this and refund it in like 2 minutes because he thought it was "like a diablo game". Yeh I know it was clear if you watched a trailer, he's too young to drink so he can't have been drunk.

They didn’t want to make an XCOM game, they made that very clear throughout development. It’s understandable as they had worked on that franchise for a solid decade. So they made the game they wanted to make, they took a risk, it didn’t pan out.

Tell your nephew to play Marvel Ultimate Alliance lol.

 

[Mr Moose]

In addition, studio head Steve Martin will also be leaving the company after 25 years, publisher 2K announced on Friday. He will be replaced by chief operating officer, Heather Hazen.

He'll be busy doing Only Murders in the Building season 3.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Well yeah Midnight Suns was fucking trash. I mean, its already free on weekend right now lmao. They had one fucking job and that was to give fans a worth successor to XCOM2. Didnt even had to be XCOM3, but anything remotely tactic but instead we got super hero sims with decent card combat. Bunch of idiots.

 

[winjer]

Oh crap. I hope this won't affect the quality of XCom 3, ever it is made and released.

 

[Punished Miku]

First Crystal Dynamics, Eidos then Firaxis.

1. Studio sales not doing great.
2. License Marvel to try and make a hit.
3. Bombs
4. Studio declines further.

The people making Black Panther are sweating right now. Marvel is apparently where most studios go to die.

 

[Pagusas]

I mean this is an easy fix... Fricken announce Civ 7 already.

 

[Interfectum]

I don't know what they were expecting with sales. Niche gameplay mixed with a tired IP. This thing was never going to sell 10+ million and no doubt it was expensive to make.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

I actually like Midnight Sun's quite a bit but the card mechanics turned off most people from trying it. They should have just made it Xcom at its heart.

 

[nowhat]

The people making Black Panther are sweating right now. Marvel is apparently where most studios go to die.

...but then again, we have Insomniac. I don't think they would have been bought by Sony had it not been for Spider-Man.

On topic, Midnight Suns has been a title I've been considering, but according to reviews the "BioWare stuff" is just intolerable. Is it really that bad?

 

[kuncol02]

he's too young to drink so he can't have been drunk

That's not how world is working at all.

 

[graywolf323]

losing Jake Solomon is awful hopefully he lands somewhere else, I’ll definitely follow anything he makes going forward

 

[Roberts]

The Coalition/Splash Damage should hire these guys fast and make a proper Gears Tactics sequel with deeper gameplay.

Not going to happen but one can dream. Anyway, didn't bother with Midnight Suns as I'm so done with Marvel.

 

[Puscifer]

Him and Julian Gallop are free agents now, all I see is opportunity especially since Julian has openly acknowledged how he appreciated all the changes in rebooting the series.

 

[Agent_Nobody]

I actually like Midnight Sun's quite a bit but the card mechanics turned off most people from trying it. They should have just made it Xcom at its heart.

I think when the card thing came up most people were thinking of a cheap Gwent knockoff or something. They should have just avoided calling the abilities ‘cards‘ at all honestly.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Is it really that bad?

Its horseshit and pointless. You can skip some of it, however, its pretty much half the game and without gaining friendship levels, you are essentially nerfing yourself hard for combat encounters. Whats worse, the game will decide when you can access higher difficulties. And before you jump in, huge warning, its not something you can avoid completely. The game loop is exactly like this the entire game: You wake up, do abbey stuff like talking, walking, upgrading and unlocking cards - takes like 10-20 mintes, then you can pick a mission - 10-20 mins max, you are returned to the abbey where you can again talk and walk, sleep and repeat. Yes, you cannot play more than one mission. And most of the dialogue is cringe shit drama. Voice acting like Spider-Man or Captain America is fine, but most of them are way too much and pointless. It's incredibly boring and its a 50 hour+ game.

If I managed to finish it, you can to, its not a bad game but it wastes your time and the story is absolute dog shit. Worst ending you can possibly imagine. SO you are essentially buying a premium price for just a card combat game which you can find tons of it on steam.

 

[Punished Miku]

...but then again, we have Insomniac. I don't think they would have been bought by Sony had it not been for Spider-Man.

On topic, Midnight Suns has been a title I've been considering, but according to reviews the "BioWare stuff" is just intolerable. Is it really that bad?

I haven't played MS yet. I'm not a huge X-Com fan.

 

[Puscifer]

They didn’t want to make an XCOM game, they made that very clear throughout development. It’s understandable as they had worked on that franchise for a solid decade. So they made the game they wanted to make, they took a risk, it didn’t pan out.

Tell your nephew to play Marvel Ultimate Alliance lol.

I'm so pissed I never got around to getting the PC ports.

 

[hlm666]

They didn’t want to make an XCOM game, they made that very clear throughout development. It’s understandable as they had worked on that franchise for a solid decade. So they made the game they wanted to make, they took a risk, it didn’t pan out.

Tell your nephew to play Marvel Ultimate Alliance lol.

Guess that's fair enough if they didn't want to do xcom, just frustrates me that it seems to be doing damage to the studio. I wish they had done something other than superheroes and hit an audience more willing to play a turn based game.

I actually played mau 1 and 2 with him when he was younger, it doesn't excuse the muppet for buying something on an assumption.

 

[graywolf323]

I'm so pissed I never got around to getting the PC ports.

same, I really wish I could play them on my Steam Deck

 

[SCB3]

First Crystal Dynamics, Eidos then Firaxis.

1. Studio sales not doing great.
2. License Marvel to try and make a hit.
3. Bombs
4. Studio declines further.

The people making Black Panther are sweating right now. Marvel is apparently where most studios go to die.

I mean Insomniac is doing great

Midnight Suns even to Marvel fans is a hard sell, I'm a Marvel fan and have no idea what the Midnight Suns lore or comics are, good on them for taking a risk, but it just didn't pan out, the game from what I've seen seems to be ok, I own it on Steam but not played it myself yet due to other games I wanted to play first, which, on how packed this year has been as well, may be another issue for them

 

[Vlodril]

Too bad because he made great games. Midnight suns was the best game (for me obviously) of last year. Nailed it even though i usually dislike card games.

Hopefully he lands somewhere else soon.

 

[Sentenza]

Garth De Angelis (the OTHER "public face of XCOM") also left the studio barely weeks ago.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Fair warning if ppl decide to buy, do not play as the female hunter. Its one of the worst voice actings I ever heard. And yes you can expect 40 hours of this kind of dialogue. Gee I wonder why it failed?

 

[Evil Calvin]

This is BS!

I love the game and is in my top 5 from last year. Paid full price too.

But should have come out in Sept rather than Dec

 

[Fbh]

Fair warning if ppl decide to buy, do not play as the female hunter. Its one of the worst voice actings I ever heard. And yes you can expect 40 hours of this kind of dialogue. Gee I wonder why it failed?

Lol is that real? Wtf

I don't know what they were expecting with sales. Niche gameplay mixed with a tired IP. This thing was never going to sell 10+ million and no doubt it was expensive to make.

I think some gaming executives are still learning that, unlike with movies, you can't just slap the Marvel name on anything have it make a billion dollars

 

[Sentenza]

I ended up liking MS a lot more than I was initially expecting when it comes to combat (and the cards turned out to be a minor issue, even if at no point I ever felt they NEEDED to be cards to make the core design work).
Bu that's only the combat, which still suffered from a certain lack of variety on the long run, too.
Everything else about the game (social linking/dating sim with the heroes, farming currencies, using pseudo-gatcha mechanics to unlock cards, etc) was a fucking slog.

 

[Mister Wolf]

Midnight Suns is a good game. So was Guardians Of The Galaxy.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Lol is that real? Wtf

Yeah. That is half the game. Only a deaf person or a huge fanboy would call that good.

 

[FeralEcho]

First Crystal Dynamics, Eidos then Firaxis.

1. Studio sales not doing great.
2. License Marvel to try and make a hit.
3. Bombs
4. Studio declines further.

The people making Black Panther are sweating right now. Marvel is apparently where most studios go to die.

EA motive after doing a great job with the Dead Space remake but knowing their next project is Iron Man and hearing another Marvel IP bombed...

If they mess up somehow we might see EA put a bullet in Motive as well and adding it to the pile.I do think Motive has the talent to do it justice though.We'll see.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Let Firaxis focus on what they do best. Shame to see such an illustrious company get task with such a menial game. I stoped trusting 2K a long time ago. Seems things are only going to get worse.

 

[SJRB]

I actually like Midnight Sun's quite a bit but the card mechanics turned off most people from trying it. They should have just made it Xcom at its heart.

They made a lot of questionable choices:

- fully priced game
- card game mechanic
- relationship management simulator and an overwhelmingly barebones/boring one at that
- ridiculous amount of useless busywork
- terrible story
- high school drama
- Goofy conversations that're extremely uncharacteristic for the characters involved (Blade being in love with Captain Marvel, dumb shit like that)
- graphics are mediocre at best

It is just an unappealing package. Also didn't help that they "hid" how large of a part the relationship management part of the game actually is until previews hit and a lot of people were like "ehhhhhh what is this".

It's still mindblowing how the studio that made X-Com, literally the same devs, did not just create a Marvel X-Com.

Catastrophic errors in judgement.

 

[xrnzaaas]

I guess Midnight Suns was a bigger bomb than they let on. Obviously does not bode well for the future of XCOM.

XCOM series has a very devoted fanbase and it's universally recognized as "the best" tactical game. Definitely an easier sell than a card-based tactical / social game set in the Marvel universe. I always thought they set themselves up for a sales flop when they thought of that combination of ideas (even if the actual game ended up being VERY good).

 

[hyperbertha]

They should have made an xcom game, i'm not sure people into marvel are the type of audience that would go hell yeh new turn based game i'm in. I had a dipshit nephew buy this and refund it in like 2 minutes because he thought it was "like a diablo game". Yeh I know it was clear if you watched a trailer, he's too young to drink so he can't have been drunk.

marvel fans have the attention span of a boiled potato. Of course X-com Avengers edition failed.

 

[Rentahamster]

I wonder if he left because he's not able to work on XCOM 3 in the way he wants to? Garth left too...

I appreciate all he's done for the franchise. He's the fuckin' man.

 

[BadBurger]

While I enjoyed the game at times (didn't finish, got bored about 15 hours in - too much poorly written fluff and needless chores), it is a niche genre in today's market, and art wise it looks like some nu metal inspired stuff from the 2000's to general audiences (Spider-Man: "Hey Logan! It's time to get down with the sickness!"). I agree with others that they should have went a more XCOM-styled route design wise, and marketed it as such.

I also can't think of a mechanic less appealing to use in an attempt to genre blend than cards - especially in a tactical game. It leaves too much to chance, robbing the player of total autonomy over their strategy, thereby completely murdering the whole "tactical" part of the genre blend.

 

[Agent_Nobody]

While I enjoyed the game at times (didn't finish, got bored about 15 hours in - too much poorly written fluff and needless chores), it is a niche genre in today's market, and art wise it looks like some nu metal inspired stuff from the 2000's to general audiences (Spider-Man: "Hey Logan! It's time to get down with the sickness!"). I agree with others that they should have went a more XCOM-styled route design wise, and marketed it as such.

I also can't think of a mechanic less appealing to use in an attempt to genre blend than cards - especially in a tactical game. It leaves too much to chance, robbing the player of total autonomy over their strategy, thereby completely murdering the whole "tactical" part of the genre blend.

I don’t see the cards being totally different to other strategy games using dice rolls, the thing is you don’t see them advertising X-com as a dice game.

 

[BadBurger]

I don’t see the cards being totally different to other strategy games using dice rolls, the thing is you don’t see them advertising X-com as a dice game.

Dice rolls just represent the player's random chance to perform an action successfully. The way cards work, your options for engagement (moves) are randomly selected for you. And in games like XCOM, your placement and other decisions, completely driven by the player, affects those dice rolls (chances of success or failure).

It's like comparing apples to football fields IMO.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Midnight Suns has been a title I've been considering, but according to reviews the "BioWare stuff" is just intolerable. Is it really that bad?

no, the opposite, it's fantastic.

 

[BigbyTheSheriff]

Midnight Suns is fantastic. One of the 2022's best.

 

[fart town usa]

Disney is even pulling back on Marvel saturation.

 

[TonyK]

I always thought it would be a problem to choose those golden suits for the superheroes designs, they feel like a copy, not the real heroes. I sadly disliked the designs from first reveal and I never wanted to play the game because that.

 

[NahaNago]

I don't fuck with Firaxis games outside of Civ (and CivCity Rome). I just hope Civ7 continues with the tradition of odd numbered Civ games being vastly superior to even numbered ones.

interesting. I only jumped on civ with Civ5 and I just couldn't get into Civ6. Hopefully what you say is true since I still play civ5 quite often even though I have a habit of uninstalling the game so I can be productive for a small period of time.

 

[Sentenza]

no, the opposite, it's fantastic.

The combat is the only "fantastic" part of the game.
If they replaced everything else is in the game with some some basic base building/management, pure XCOM style, the final result would be simply improved by it.

It's not just bland, it's genuinely bad. Bad enough to put me off from replaying the game just because I don't want to go through it again, despise the fact that I played fucking War of the Chosen 20+ times.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

pure XCOM style,

There's your problem, it's not XCOM, you set yourself up for disappointment and only have yourself to blame.
I loved everything about, is my GOTY 2022, deadpool DLC was awesome and I can't wait for the rest starting with venom next week.

 

[Sentenza]

There's your problem, it's not XCOM, you set yourself up for disappointment and only have yourself to blame.

Yeah, because I expected it to be good.