Veterans of XCOM and Civilization developer Firaxis Games have announced the formation of Bit Reactor, a new Maryland-based studio that intends to focus its efforts on creating turn-based tactics games with “high-end production values”.
Bit Reactor co-founder and CEO Greg Foertsch was a member of the Firaxis team for nearly 22 years, with 14 of those spent as the studio’s senior art director – his credits include Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, SimGolf, Civilization 3 and 4, Pirates!, and the first two XCOM games.
Joining Foertsch at Bit Reactor are “lead developers and creatives” who previously work on Firaxis’ XCOM series, and the studio’s mission is to rejuvenate the strategy genre, with a particular focus on turn-based tactics games – a genre Foertsch calls “greatly overlooked” in the press release announcing the company’s formation.
Expanding on that sentiment in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Foertsch explained, “The whole genre started to fall backwards [as the popularity of Xbox and PlayStation consoles grew] and it got dropped a bit. Now, that’s not a problem. Screen resolution isn’t an issue. There are ways to tell stories and convey information that doesn’t require a wall of text.