Cult classic cel-shaded shooter XIII was famously remade, and subsequently widely panned, in 2020. However, the remake is getting a second chance, as it is now being basically remade again.
A new statement on the game’s Steam page reads: “To achieve the quality standards and offer an optimal gaming experience, Microids decided to entrust the development of XIII Remake to the French studio Tower Five (Lornsword: Winter Chronicle). Hard at work for more than a year on a major update. This update will be released on September 13th.
“On that date, owners of the game will receive a free update and enjoy the game as intended. The development studio reworked the entire game from the Art Direction to the AI and added numerous technical improvements” (via Kotaku).
As you can see, the original development team PlayMagic has been given the boot in favour of a new studio.
In 2020, then developer PlayMagic and publisher Microids admitted the heavily criticised remake did not live up to expectations. At this time, blame was attributed to the Covid19 pandemic.
“Unfortunately, players’ expectations have not been met by the launch version and we hear loud and clear the legitimate criticism and disappointment,” they said.
“First and foremost, we would like to offer our most sincere apologies for the game’s technical issues. In its present state, XIII does not meet our quality standards and we fully understand players’ frustrations. The pandemic has impacted the game’s production on many levels. Pivoting to home working for the teams has added unexpected delays in the development schedule and the QA process. We hoped we would be able to provide a Day One patch fixing all the issues but the development of this update is taking more time than expected.”
