Marvel game developer shakes up leadership

The developer behind Marvel’s Midnight Suns, XCOM, and Civilization has found itself a new studio head, while other key leaders leave the company.

Firaxis Games, the developer behind games like Marvel’s Midnight Suns, the XCOM series, and Civilization, has announced a huge shake-up to the studio’s leadership, and announced a new game.

2K, the parent company of Firaxis, has announced that former Firaxis CEO Heather Hazen will now act as the developer’s studio head, replacing Steve Martin who was with the company for almost 30 years.

In a post on Twitter, Martin farewelled the company and the fans, saying he was grateful for the opportunity to work on over 32 games.

“I am tremendously grateful for the opportunity to have championed and led the work of such a talented group of people for the past couple decades at the greatest studio in the world,” Martin said, “I am proud of the legacy of games Firaxis has created and its reputation in the industry”.

Hazen, the new studio head at Firaxis, was previously an executive producer on Fortnite, as well as games such as Plants vs Zombies and Bejeweled. Firaxis says that Hazen will be managing the company’s multiple development teams, and helping the company “build the best strategy games on the planet”.

Firaxis and 2K also announced that a new game in the Civilization series is in the works under Hazen’s leadership. The last game in the series, Civilization 6, was released in 2016, and saw years of post-launch support in the form of new content, leaders, and features.

Civilization 6 was well-received by fans and received plenty of post-launch support. Picture: 2K Games

“I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to carry on the studio’s storied legacy,” Hazen said, “Beginning with the announcement that Firaxis is in development on the next iteration of the legendary Civilization franchise. 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”.

Hazen also says that the company will continue to produce new content for Marvel’s Midnight Suns, which was released in December for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC. A version of the game for Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One is reportedly in the works, but updates on these versions of the game have been few and far between in recent years.

Midnight Suns received glowing reviews from critics and fans across the board, but failed to make an impact in terms of sales. In an interview with Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, parent company Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said the game was a commercial flop.

The XCOM series is a long-running strategy game series. Picture: 2K Games

In related news, Zelnick also said in an interview recently that last year’s GTA 6 leaks were “upsetting” for developers at Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games. The game has yet to be announced by the company, and some industry sources say it’s quite far off.

The leaks were similar in scope to a cyber attack that took place at Riot Games earlier this year which saw the League of Legends source code stolen and posted online. Riot says the attack was a “social engineering attack”, which didn’t use traditional hacking techniques.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.