The Bureau: Xcom Declassified, the third-person shooter set in the Xcom universe, was announced before it was ready, according to devs from 2K Marin.
In an AMA on Reddit, members of the Declassified team revealed their opinions on the way that information regarding the game was presented to gamers.
The game's lead narrative designer, Erik Caponi, explained: "So, the interesting thing about the history of the earlier version of The Bureau, is that you guys got to see behind the curtain a bit and see some of that sausage being made. The game (and full disclosure, that version of it was before my time here), was announced too early, before the process had really been seen through to the best and most credible version of the game."
Senior product manager Nik Karlsson then added: "In 2010 and 2011 the devs were still fine tuning the concept for what an XCOM shooter really is. It's hard to consistently tell fans what to expect of a game when the concept for that game is still being baked."
"Once we knew The Bureau was a very challenging, very tactical, very calculated third-person shooter we went to work telling the world about it. I feel like we've finally overcome the education hurdle that was in front of us, for the most part people understand that this game is no longer a FPS, and it's no longer a detective game, it's a tactical third-person shooter that's reflective of the core XCOM tenants."
The Bureau: Xcom Declassified is launching in Europe on August 23, and will be available on PC, PC3 and Xbox 360.