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XCOM pre-orders available on Steam though rewards are dependant on sales

xcom_pre-order

What’s that coming over the hill? Is it a Sectoid? A Chryssalid? Some form of human victim of a UFO attack who’s seeking aid from any living creature in light of the horrors they’ve witnessed? No. It’s Firaxis’ re-make/visioning of the XCOM series. At it’s current speed and trajectory it’ll be upon us in just shy of five weeks, to steal our time, wear down our fingertips till they bleed, and crush our meager minds under the weight of tactical sacrifices.

XCOM’s dominance is inevitable. All we can do is capitulate and pre-order. Though, this is a pre-order by way of Kickstarter.

Don’t worry, it’s not that you throw down your money and if they make a certain amount then you’re given your game; the rewards for pre-ordering are dependent on the number of sales they make.

So, if you were to saunter over to Steam’s XCOM page now and plonked down your £30 you’d get yourself a copy of XCOM on release along with the tier one reward:

“Reward 1
Elite Soldier Pack*The Elite Soldier Pack will provide the ultimate tools for soldier customization in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, including:

  • Classic XCOM Soldier
    Players will instantly receive a new recruit in their barracks inspired by the original X-COM: UFO Defense. The iconic soldier with the blonde, flattop hairstyle will return fully modernized.
  • Soldier Deco packs
    Players can customize their soldier with several aesthetic upgrades to armor suits, including the new Hyperion and Reaper soldier armor kits.
  • Complete color customization
    A variety of colors and tints for all armor sets in the game allow players complete control to customize their squad’s look.”

Which seems quite nice. A little bit of colour to really bring out your soldiers’ eyes.

Once there have been enough sales to unlock tier two all pre-orderers will receive:

“Reward 2
Everything Above, Plus:3 Exclusive XCOMTF2Item’s

  • The Crafty Hair
    If you’re ever planning on fighting aliens, this is the hair to have.
  • Area 451
    If aliens ever invaded Badlands and used their special alien powers to make all of our heads look like alien heads, this is a scientifically accurate representation of what Pyro would look like.
  • The Vigilant Pin
    This pin proudly states to all that you are at least vaguely aware of the possibility that maybe aliens exist.”

Everyone loves hats.

Finally, if loads and loads and loads of copies sell then that’ll unlock tier three:

“Reward 3
Everything Above, Plus:A Free copy ofCivilization V!”

It’s a canny marketingmethod on Firaxis’ part and one I can’t remember seeing before outside of Kickstarter’s stretch goals. The important nugget to take away from this is XCOM is coming in just over a month. A real XCOM, that we can play, like it was the 90s again. I for one will have this on loop whilst I play: