X-Com Interceptor followed in ‘98, as did X-Com First Alien Invasion in ‘99, and lastly X-Com Enforcer in 2001 - all of which suffered underwhelming reviews, causing Gollop to believe they’d be ruthlessly churned out off the back of the original’s success. He believed X-Com had lost sight of what made it special, something he held so dear.
There was a point where he’d almost had enough.
“I’m not sure I’ve told anyone else this, actually,” says Gollop. “But at the point that Take2 made the first announcement of an X-Com game, which became The Bureau, when they first announced it was going to be an FPS, I was so outraged that I was determined that I would start a crowdfunding campaign to do a proper X-Com game. I changed my mind when Fireaxis announced their version of X-Com because I knew they would actually do a pretty good job of it. There was a brief period there were I was going to do it, but it didn’t last.”
With Fireaxis’ successful take on X-Com, Gollop feels he’s now in a position to let it go. He laments how redundant the Geoscape function became in the game’s transition to FPS, yet it’s small change given how lost he reckons the series was beforehand, and how well Fireaxis did in reviving it.