''XIII'' is a

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by Maltese studio PlayMagic and published by

Microids Microids (formerly Microïds) is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. Founded in 1985 by Elliot Grassiano, it attained early success with games published through Loriciel in France and other partners (including Activisio ...

for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

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, and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

in November 2020. The

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

version of the game was released in September 2022. The

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, it was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North Ame ...

and the

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 2020, t ...

version of the game was released in September 13, 2022. It is a remake of the 2003 video game of the same name. The game received negative reviews from critics and players. It was criticized for its changes to the art style, game design differences from the original, and the game's numerous technical and audio issues. Microids issued an apology for the game's technical issues on launch and in June 2022 announced that a major new update for the game, this time under the development of Tower Five that aims to improve the remake's quality, would be released in September 2022.

Plot

Development

The remake of the original 2003 video game was announced on April 18, 2019 with PlayMagic developing the game and

publishing the game for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and

. The game was originally scheduled for release on November 13, until it was delayed to 2020 for further development. In June 2020, the game was announced to be scheduled for release on November 10, 2020 for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. In October 2020, it was announced that the port of the game for Nintendo Switch was delayed to 2021. The original plan was to remaster the game using original assets and Unity plug-ins. Unfortunately, the original source code was deemed lost and the 2003 version was running in an extremely outdated game engine. Therefore, the team had no choice but to redo the entire game from scratch, which means hiring new staff and extending the release date to remake the levels, assets, cutscenes, and animations. Due to the poor reception to the game, Microids announced in June 2022 that they had replaced PlayMagic with Tower Five as the developer, who had been working on fixing the issues from the 2020 release. Microids released the improved version on September 13, 2022, with this version given as a free update to those that bought the 2020 version.

Reception

''XIII'' received "generally unfavorable" reviews for most platforms according to

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; the PlayStation 5 version received "mixed or average" reviews. A lot of criticism were aimed towards the remake's unnecessary changes from the original, such as the art style and the weapon limit, as well as the game's numerous technical and audio issues. Developer PlayMagic and publisher Microids issued a joint statement apologizing to players for the state of the game at release, adding that the

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had significantly affected the game's production. On

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, the game received an "Overwhelmingly Negative" rating from players. The release of the remake caused an increase in sales of the original game, causing the 2003 game to outsell the remake in the first week of the remake's release in the UK. According to former staff of PlayMagic, it was reported that CEO and Creative Director Giuseppe Crugliano was to be blamed for the game's failure due to poor project management, a lack of staff, low morale, and toxic company culture. Crugliano denied these allegations but admitted to a problem with late payments, claiming they were the result of cash flow problems from project cancellations and unpaid fees from clients.

Notes

References

External links

* {{XIII 2020 video games Adaptations of works by Jean Van Hamme First-person shooters Microïds games Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 5 games Stealth video games Video game remakes Video games developed in France Video games developed in Malta Video games based on comics Video games set in New York City Video games with cel-shaded animation Windows games Xbox One games Xbox Series X and Series S games