Explainer

X-COM or XCOM: what the hyphen means

It is not a typing error either way. The hyphen belongs to the nineties games and its absence belongs to the modern ones, and the two play very differently.

X-COM, with the hyphen, means the original series: X-COM: UFO Defense (Mythos Games and MicroProse, 1994) and the games that followed it in the nineties.

XCOM, without, means the modern series: XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games, published by 2K, 2012), XCOM 2 (2016) and their spin-offs. The reboot dropped the hyphen, and that is the whole convention.

What happened in between

The studio that made the original did not make the remake. Mythos Games closed in 2001 after the publisher it depended on was bought and the buyer dropped its 3D follow-up. Julian Gollop, who designed the 1994 game, started again with a small company and spent the next decade making handheld and play-by-email tactics games.

The name itself ended up with 2K, which handed it to Firaxis Games, the studio best known for Civilization. Gollop had no part in the 2012 game. He got his own return to the idea eventually, as Phoenix Point (Snapshot Games, 2019).

So the hyphen is doing more work than punctuation usually does: it marks a change of studio, of publisher, of decade and of design philosophy, all at once.

The four differences that actually matter

If you have played one and are considering the other, these are the changes you will notice in the first hour.

Time units became two actions. In 1994 every soldier had a pool of time units and spent them on steps, turns, reloads and shots, which meant you could stop halfway through anything. Since 2012 a soldier gets two actions a turn, which is far clearer and much less flexible.
The squad got small. The original's Skyranger carried fourteen soldiers. XCOM: Enemy Unknown starts you with four and lets you reach six, and the modern games are built around that number.
Cover became a number. The original had no cover system at all; you were exposed or you were behind something that physically blocked the shot. The 2012 game gives half cover and full cover stated bonuses to the target's defence, cancelled by flanking, and prints the resulting odds on the screen.
The inventory went away. In 1994 each soldier had a layout of pockets and a weight limit tied to their strength. From 2012 you pick a weapon and one utility item before the mission and that is the end of it.

Which one to play

If you want the modern one, start with XCOM: Enemy Unknown and then play XCOM 2, which is the better game and the more stressful.

If you want the original design, do not start with the 1994 release. Play Xenonauts (Goldhawk Interactive, 2014), which is the same thing with an interface built this century, or Xenonauts 2 (Goldhawk, published by Hooded Horse, 2026). Come back to X-COM: UFO Defense afterwards, when its interface is a curiosity rather than an obstacle.

Of the rest of the old series, X-COM: Terror from the Deep (MicroProse, 1995) is the same game underwater and harder, often unfairly. X-COM: Apocalypse (Mythos Games, 1997) is the ambitious failure, set in one city, with factions that have their own politics and the option to fight in real time with a pause.

A note on the other spellings

You will see UFO: Enemy Unknown, which is what the 1994 game was called in Europe. Same game, different box.

You will also see UFO in the names of several unrelated series, including the three Altar Interactive games, Aftermath (2003), Aftershock (2005) and Afterlight (2007), which rebuild the formula in real time with a pause and have nothing to do with either X-COM or XCOM.

Why we care about the distinction

RAD Tactics is a squad tactics game for Windows, real time with pause, set after a collapse, with zombies and with factions fighting over what is left. It is in development, and we are not going to describe anything in it that is not finished.

When people compare a new tactics game to XCOM, they usually mean the 2012 design: six soldiers, two actions, cover percentages. When they compare it to X-COM, they mean something harder and stranger that cared more about simulation than clarity. Those are different compliments and different warnings, and it is worth knowing which one you are being given.