XCOM: Enemy Within mod tools aren't "on the table," but might be coming someday
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
XCOM: Enemy Unknown was one of our favorite games last year, but the brilliant turn-based strategy game lacks the modding support we hope for in big PC games. In a new interview, XCOM designer Garth DeAngelis says that modding tools aren't “on the table currently,” but that doesn't mean they're never coming.
“Technically, sure, there's a lot of support for [Unreal Development Kit] and modding and things like that,” DeAngelis told PCGamesN . “And, if we were to do it, we'd want to do it right. We'd provide the proper level of tools and support and that takes a little more planning and time to get that right and we're not on that right now.”
There are some mods available for Enemy Unknown at the XCOM Mod Nexus, yes. But without dedicated dev tools and an established community, the mod nexus offering will never be as robust as, say, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 's 581 pages of Steam Workshop mods .
Altering game data will be a bit easier in Enemy Unknown's expansion pack, XCOM: Enemy Within , though. XCOM senior designer Anand Gupta told PCGamesN that in Enemy Within, “[a]ll the stuff you'd expect to be in the easily accessible data, the .ini files, is. Like the 'How much does a mech cost?' stuff is relatively easy for players to touch... We also did make an effort to move more core game data into those things, things that we didn't have to. It doesn't rise to the level of tool support or editor support. But we did make it more accessible for people who wanted to tweak those files.”
Enemy Within comes out on November 15, and I'm looking forward to seeing what devoted fans some up with. Until dedicated modding tools arrive someday, it's the best we're going to get.
Thanks, PCGamesN .
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

