If you’ve been following the development of 2K Marin’s (Australia) first-person shooter set in the venerable XCOM franchise, then you shouldn’t be at all surprised that the game’s release has been delayed into 2013.

Originally announced in early 2010, and due for a 2011 release, the first demonstration of XCOM for PC and Xbox 360 was pretty rough with a few intriguing nuggets including peculiar oil-like aliens and seemingly sentient geometric shapes that could break targets down into atoms.

The development team subsequently went back to the drawing board for certain elements of XCOM and reworked the game, which resulted in a re-showing at E3 2011 and a delay into 2012. The game still looked a little rough and the concept still sounded a little shaky, but 2K proceeded to announce a March 2012 release for the game.

The publisher has recently changed its mind, however, and in the wake of the announcement of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a strategy game from Firaxis and also published by 2K Games, the first-person action version of XCOM has been pushed back into 2013.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown, however, is still on the table for a 2012 launch which essentially means 2K will re-kickstart the XCOM franchise with the newly announced title.

We’re keeping an eye open for more information.

IGN Australia