A brief glimpse of the future of XCOM was shown off during Firaxis' PAX East 2013 panel moments ago, hinting that a new alien threat may be aligning against planet Earth.
The teaser, which featured a static-riddled message from the "councilman," delivered an ominous message to close out the panel.
"This next one is big," Firaxis' Jake Solomon told the panel's attendees. "You're not going to see it anywhere else, we're not even going to talk about it for a while. This is for those of you who care enough to be super fans and came to this panel. We wanted to give you a sneak peek at what may be coming next, so, we have an incoming transmission from the councilman."
The message, which was fairly difficult to translate, was not an optimistic one.
"Hello Commander," the councilman said. "The war continues, at great cost. We now believe another force has [static] against us, if not dealt with swiftly, they could destroy us. What we're about to tell you cannot be repeated. Even now, enemy agents could be ..." Following that, the message was cut off, leaving the audience to wonder what Firaxis has up its sleeve.
Firaxis also announced that an iOS version of XCOM was in development during the panel.