XIII remake developer and publisher apologise following the game’s poor reception, blaming pandemic’s affect on development

The publisher and developer behind the poorly-received XII remake have apologised, saying that the pandemic had affected the game’s development (via Eurogamer).

The remake of the 2003 cult classic FPS currently has an “overwhelmingly negative” user review on Steam. Players have criticised the change in the game’s art style, moving away from the original’s comic-style look. Additionally, the game is reportedly filled with bugs, as seen in the Tweets below.

Why… why… WHY https://t.co/XHdu5wVo9e

— Some guy (@ThomasOnTheWeb) November 10, 2020

Developer PlayMagic and publisher Microids have apologised for the game’s quality in a joint statement, pointing to the pandemic’s affect on the game’s development.

“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.”

PlayMagic has pledged to continue to work on the game to address the technical issues – As well as promising future free content.

“We want to assure you that PlayMagic is working hard to solve all the game’s issues. With live monitoring and multiple patches in the upcoming days and weeks, we hope to reach the quality level we all expect for the optimum gaming experience. The first update will be pushed shortly to fix the most urgent issues regarding the controls, frame rate, collisions, rendering and sound.

“Finally, know that we are working on a detailed road map highlighting the upcoming free additions to the game content like new levels, weapons, skins and modes for the local multiplayer.

“We are aiming to please all the XIII fans and we’ll work relentlessly to achieve our goal.”