Pretty obvious. Majority of gamers are male and the majority of males prefer to play as a male character, if given the choice. Then you have those sorts of players who want to dive in without going through the hassle of customization.

Do people bother to check out the provided link in the article? People suggest Alpha Centauri or some other thing when the link gives no question what Firaxis is working on next.

@SirNormanislost The Kotaku link confirms it's and XCOM project. No question for anyone who played XCOM. Since they said "big", I doubt it's a DLC or expansion for the latest installment. At least, I don't consider a DLC or expansion "big".

@jessie82 Why?

Hey Senator, how about you focus on fixing the damn budget and the federal deficit first? Hm? Oh, wait, I forgot. Politicians don't really tackle the real problems. Silly me.

Well, guess that's one way of pumping out games like they were running out of style. Development has to be a bit pricey with that much manpower.

@Lei_11 Well, if you go buy stocks, where do you think that money goes? They also get money from GOG.com and good success with the titles they release. So I think they're financially sound to give a big middle finger to publishers wanting to buy them out.

Well, I'll have no life for a while when this game gets released. That's for certain.

"In order for EA's microtransactions platform to flourish, the correct technology must be in place"

Is this guy serious? All a user needs is a place to browse, select, pay, download, and install. How difficult is that to implement?

The only game I played out of that list (and still in progress) is AC3. I am enjoying the storyline and writing overall. There have been some flaws in the writing I noticed, but still an entertaining story nonetheless.