X-Com creator doing 3DS launch title

X-Com: UFO Defense creator Julian Gollop is working on a turn-based tactical RPG due for release on Nintendo 3DS when the console launches.

Meanwhile, internet detectives have discovered Gollop is employed by Ubisoft Bulgaria/Sofia - and noted that the publisher has a turn-based 3DS title called Ghost Recon: Lead the Ghosts in development.

Writing in the comments on a Gamasutra article, Gollop lamented the lack of publisher interest in turn-based games.

"Publishers run a mile from anything with turn-based mechanics - it is regarded as too niche. RTS games pretty much killed off turn-based strategy games in the mid-nineties - but now even RTS games are regarded as niche," he wrote (thanks Joystiq). "So all my experience working turn-based games from 1983-1997 is now somewhat obsolete, despite the success of X-Com.

"However, I am now working on a turn-based tactical RPG which will be a 3DS launch title. Thanks to Advance Wars, Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics it seems turn-based games are not totally dead - at least for Nintendo handhelds."

Nintendo blog TinyCartridge picked up the trail and uncovered Gollop's LinkedIn profile, noting the Ubisoft Bulgaria/Sofia connection, and then reminded us that Ubisoft is making Ghost Recon: Lead the Ghosts, about which relatively little is known other than it resembles a turn-based tactical strategy game.

2K recently announced plans to revive X-Com in the form of XCOM, a new first-person strategy game from 2K Marin (confusingly, really developed by a team in Australia), although Gollop isn't involved.