I'm not usually one to call people names, but a recent interview with 2K Games president Christoph Hartmann regarding their latest take on the classic XCOM franchise does indeed, in my opinion, make him sound like an ass.

In the interview, Hartmann explains that strategy games aren't the hottest thing right now so they're turning XCOM into a shooter. It's not a matter of just cashing in on a franchise with a certain degree of built-in name recall, though. Or so he says.

"The problem was that turn-based strategy games were no longer the hottest thing on planet Earth," he said. "But this is not just a commercial thing – strategy games are just not contemporary," he added, totally ignoring forgetting about games like StarCraft II and 2K's own release, Civilization V.

"I use the example of music artists. Look at someone old school like Ray Charles, if he would make music today it would still be Ray Charles but he would probably do it more in the style of Kanye West. Bringing Ray Charles back is all fine and good, but it just needs to move on, although the core essence will still be the same.

"That’s what we are trying to do. To renew Xcom but in line with what this generation of gamers want. The team behind it is asking themselves every day: ‘Is it true to the values of the franchise?’ It’s not a case of cashing in on the name. We just need to renew it because times are changing."

It's not a case of cashing in, but they are doing everything they can to make the game as commercial as possible by bastardizing the original series. Right. I get that 2K wants to make money, but saying things like this (and I'm not even gonna go near that whole rapping Ray Charles scenario) is why the PR stuff should be left to the PR department.

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