Former Firaxis developers form Bit Reactor, aim to push turn-based strategy forward

Fans of the critically acclaimed XCOM series may become interested to hear that former members of Firaxis Games, the main developer behind the series, have just formed a new studio titled Bit Reactor. Situated in Hunt Valley, Maryland, this new studio aims to provide players with brand new takes on the turn-based strategy genre. Greg Foertsch, Bit Reactor’s co-founder and CEO, and former art director at Firaxis, specifically stated that the team will usher in “a golden age of turn-based games.” A bold claim to make for sure.

According to Foertsch, other gaming genres have evolved significantly within the past several years, but the rate at which the turn-based strategy genre has matured remains slow. He believes that the team at Bit Reactor possesses the talent, experience, and passion necessary to take the genre in a bold new direction.

Setting a high bar

Foertsch mainly aims to inject the studio’s turn-based strategy projects with the kind of robust storytelling, advanced production values, and major design innovations found in many modern games. As he explained to GamesIndustry, he does not want to resort to displaying a wall of text to communicate a story as so many other turn-based games have. Currently, Bit Reactor already has some projects in the works, and it seeks to expand its team with new hires that boast ample experience in the games industry.

Foertsch further demonstrated his immense ambition by stating that winning Game of the Year represents one of the company’s major goals. That may sound like an overly aspirational thing to say, but considering that these same developers achieved exactly this with XCOM: Enemy Unknown back when they worked at Firaxis Games, it makes sense that they would want to push themselves further under Bit Reactor. Hopefully, by the time these developers release a new game, they will have proven that they have not lost their touch.

“As game genres of all-types see refreshed takes in this new generation of technology, one thing is clear in that turn-based tactic games have been greatly overlooked and have an enormous amount of room for innovation,” said Greg Foertsch, co-founder and CEO, Bit Reactor, in a press release. “We have a very team-oriented culture and we’ve assembled an amazing group of talented, experienced and dedicated game developers to inject rich storytelling, immersive presentation and rock solid game mechanics to give this genre its rightful time to shine – a golden age of turn-based games is upon us.”