XCOM: Enemy Within is a standalone expansion for XCOM: Enemy Unknown that is set to arrive later this year. The game will arrive on PC and Mac, but on consoles, the only way to get the expansion will be purchase the Commander’s Edition. This Commander’s Edition features the full Enemy Unknown campaign, the previously released DLC, and the Enemy Within content.
So why couldn’t this just be issued as DLC on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3? According to Firaxis Producer Garth DeAngelis, “The expansion on the PC, it was fairly straight forward…But when it came to consoles, it was too big. If we wanted to deliver the same content to the console players, we had to do it this way as a standalone expansion on a disc. We couldn’t simply just patch it in.”
Ultimately, DeAngelis says “It was either deliver it this way or not deliver it at all.”
XCOM: Enemy Within is slated to arrive on PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on November 12th.