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A New Era Begins at Firaxis Games

TheLostSwede

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2K today announced that industry veteran and Firaxis Games Chief Operating Officer, Heather Hazen, has been promoted to Studio Head, ushering in a new era of development at the legendary interactive entertainment studio behind Sid Meier's Civilization, XCOM, and the recently-released and critically-acclaimed Marvel's Midnight Suns.

As Studio Head, Hazen will manage Firaxis Games' development teams and lead its mission to build the best strategy games on the planet. With 22 years of experience in gaming and entertainment, Hazen joined Firaxis Games in 2020 as the studio's Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Firaxis Games, she was an Executive Producer on Fortnite at Epic Games, as well as Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled while at PopCap Games. Hazen's promotion comes as longtime Firaxis Studio Head, Steve Martin, will be leaving the studio after more than 25 years with the organization.




"We are excited to welcome Heather Hazen as the new Studio Head of Firaxis Games, and believe she will continue to drive the success Firaxis has consistently delivered as part of 2K's independent studio model," said David Ismailer, President of 2K. "2K and Firaxis Games are deeply grateful for the foundation that Steve Martin set during his time at the studio, shepherding more than 30 game launches across three genre-defining franchises, and for ensuring a smooth transition for Heather into her new role. Firaxis is one of our company and industry's most renowned studios, and we are confident that the team will continue to do great things under her leadership."

"I'm thrilled to have this opportunity to carry on the studio's storied legacy, beginning with the announcement that Firaxis is in development on the next iteration of the legendary Civilization franchise," said Hazen. "I'm lucky to be working with some of the best developers in our industry, and we have plans to take the Civilization franchise to exciting new heights for our millions of players around the world. In addition, we will continue to support Marvel's Midnight Suns with post-launch content, and explore new creative projects for our teams."

Ed Beach will continue in his role as Creative Director on the forthcoming Civilization. Beach has been an integral part of the development of Civilization titles for more than 15 years, and most recently led the design of Civilization VI, the best-selling Civilization game to-date. The Civilization franchise is one of gaming's most definitive and decorated franchises, with more than 65 million copies sold to-date.

In addition, Jake Solomon, former Creative Director of the XCOM franchise and Marvel's Midnight Suns, will be departing the studio. Solomon leaves after over two decades at Firaxis Games, and was instrumental in revitalizing the tactical turn-based genre with the releases of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2, and Marvel's Midnight Suns.

"I'm embarking on a new chapter; however, I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfill my dreams at Firaxis Games," said Solomon. "I'm thankful to everyone who enjoyed XCOM and Marvel's Midnight Suns, and to my development and publishing partners who helped bring those games to life."

"Jake revolutionized tactical turn-based games and continually raised the bar for storytelling in the strategy genre," added Ismailer. "We have deep appreciation for his work and can't wait to see what he does next."

Firaxis Games is a 2K studio. 2K is a wholly owned publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
 
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Well, I hope this goes better than when EA hired the Candy Crush Design Director to fill Head of Design position for BF2042, lol.
 
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Sid retire or what?
 
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Gotta say, not getting great vibes. Jake Solomon leaving is a massive loss for the studio. At least Ed Beach is still working on the next Civ, for now.
 

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Looking forward to seeing what Jake Solomon gets up to next. His XCOM reboot, specifically EU/EW was nothing short of stellar on all fronts.
 
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"and the recently-released and critically-acclaimed Marvel's Midnight Suns"

idk about that, seems it was received pretty poorly by the public.
 
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A lot of superhero games are not done right. The exception that ive seen in quite some time outside of The Batman Arkham series is Spiderman when it was a PS4/5 exclusive but is now also on PC. That is one of the greatest superhero games ive played in a LONG time.
 
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"and the recently-released and critically-acclaimed Marvel's Midnight Suns"

idk about that, seems it was received pretty poorly by the public.
was gonna mention this, ¿wasn't midnight suns a complete dumpster fire and a commercial failure?
 
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Midnight Suns is one of the best games I have played in years.
 

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"and the recently-released and critically-acclaimed Marvel's Midnight Suns"

idk about that, seems it was received pretty poorly by the public.

I think youre Confusing midnight suns with Marvel Avengers.

1676665358222.png


1676665382954.png


People seemed to have enjoyed midnight sun's a lot more.
 
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I didn't realise Midnight Suns was Firaxis, I should take another look at it.

I'm just hoping for more XCOM; Chimera Squad was great, but it was more of an XCOM 2.5 rather than a full release.
 
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I didn't realise Midnight Suns was Firaxis, I should take another look at it.

I'm just hoping for more XCOM; Chimera Squad was great, but it was more of an XCOM 2.5 rather than a full release.
I'm a huge XCOM fan and not really a Marvel fan. There are ideas from XCOM in Midnight Suns, but gameplay is not like XCOM where you are relying on cover and height advantage to get better chance of shooting the enemy. The combat is turn based and you get to play 3 regular cards per turn, make 2 movements, use 2 inventory items, and redraw 2 cards. Destructible environments to use to your advantage.

Combat is like 1/3 of game. Story explore mode (looks like tomb raider) is about 1/3, and the other 1/3 is finding ways to gain trust of your allies which includes various activities from irritating to hilarious.
 
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The non-combat mode is more like persona than tomb raider. there's no tricky platforming or anything. You're just exploring an area and engaging in various activities with your squad. I honestly found that part of the game to be very lackluster, with extremely cringeworthy marvel movie style dialogue. As an MCU hater, it's really not for me. The combat side of things is quite good and interesting, though.
 
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"Prior to Firaxis Games, she was an Executive Producer on Fortnite at Epic Games, as well as Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled while at PopCap Games."
wait............what.
I guess RIP Firaxis
 
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About time for a new era at Firaxis. Let's see if they choose to drive their franchises into the ground with more mobile oriented crap and half finished games completed by DLC (Civ V was only fun after a few expansions... similar things happened with VI)... or whether they'll actually bring something new to the 4X / strategy space other than another reskinned Civilization.

The 4X has moved ahead despite Firaxis the past decade or two. Civ BE was a shitshow and VI didn't add jack shit other than the worst AI ever in a 4X over V, in fact, the only memorable title is V.

Oh and btw, Alpha Centauri remaster, when? Its still one of the best versions of the concept imho.
 
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The problem lies in fact that the management becomes only a career/money pursuing personnel without any real affinity to games they do. Basically you simply cannot create a great product if you are not dedicated enough.

These times we see a lot of this sloppiness happening - games, movies, music. All we see are buthcered franchizes.
 
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About time for a new era at Firaxis. Let's see if they choose to drive their franchises into the ground with more mobile oriented crap and half finished games completed by DLC (Civ V was only fun after a few expansions... similar things happened with VI)... or whether they'll actually bring something new to the 4X / strategy space other than another reskinned Civilization.

The 4X has moved ahead despite Firaxis the past decade or two. Civ BE was a shitshow and VI didn't add jack shit other than the worst AI ever in a 4X over V, in fact, the only memorable title is V.

Oh and btw, Alpha Centauri remaster, when? Its still one of the best versions of the concept imho.
Out of all the civ games, civ 4 is my favorite.
 
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Out of all the civ games, civ 4 is my favorite.
I'll second that, but I only play it modded anymore (Civ4 Fall From Heaven is a gem) so not sure how valid that opinion is.
 
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