Ex-Firaxis Developers Formed a New Studio Bit Reactor

Ex-developers from Firaxis Games have announced they have formed a new studio called Bit Reactor. The former art director of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2 Greg Foertsch became the co-founder and CEO of the new Maryland-based studio.

Foertsch is aiming to revive the strategy genre, drawing XCOM "lead developers and creatives" along with other teams focusing on turn-based tactics games. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Foertsch shared: "The whole genre started to fall backwards while not having enough production values 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. That's what we're focused on – bringing that to the genre, and really blurring that line between what a strategy game is and what an action game is."

Bit Reactor's ambitions are pretty strong – the studio is intended to win Game of the Year, according to Foertsch. "We expect to go head to head with Halo or whoever is out there, just like we did in 2012," said Bit Reactor's CEO. Currently, with the opportunity of cross-platform playing, the studio has the advantage Firaxis didn't have ten years ago. "We're super interested in cross play and being able to play the game on as many different platforms as possible, but right now, we're really focused on nailing the console experience and PC experience," said Foertsch.

Greg Foertsch was a member of the Firaxis Games team for over 20 years with 14 years spent as the studio's senior art director. He worked on such projects as Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, SimGolf, Civilization 3 and 4, Pirates!, and the first two parts of XCOM. Foertsch left Fixaris in 2018, for a while, he worked in Romero Games and currently is starting up his own studio.

You can learn more about the new Bit Reactor studio by reading Greg Foertsch's interview here. Also, don't forget to join our new Reddit page, our new Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we are sharing breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.