First Round of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified DLC Exclusive to Xbox 360

The creators of BioShock 2 are hard at work on The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, and today we learned about their plans for the pre-order and post-launch downloadable content (DLC) for the game. The first DLC pack will be available exclusively to Xbox 360 players. The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is currently slated to release for Xbox 360 and PS3 on August 20.

Each round of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified DLC will focus on expanding the declassified origin story of the clandestine XCOM organization. 2K Marin, the game’s developers, stated that the game will get quite a few updates beyond its release date, so PS3 owners don’t have to worry about minimal content even though they won’t see the first batch of Xbox 360-exclusive DLC.

“The alternate 1962 universe that we’ve created for The Bureau is vast and there are many more stories to tell about the early days of XCOM,” said Morgan Gray, development director at 2K Marin. “We’re excited that our stories will provide a new perspective on the war effort, much like how our critically acclaimed Minvera’s Den DLC for BioShock 2 allowed us to present a unique perspective of Rapture.”

Players who pre-order The Bureau through any of the participating retailers will receive a bonus campaign side-mission called “Codebreakers.” In this mission, a top secret government communications facility responsible for intercepting and decoding the enemy’s transmissions has gone radio-silent. In a desperate attempt to turn the tides of the secret war, Special Agent Carter and his squad must make contact with personnel in order to bring the facility back online, eliminate any threats, and decrypt the mysterious code.

In addition to the Codebreakers side-mission, those who pre-order The Bureau through GameStop will receive the Light Plasma Pistol as an exclusive in-game item. Early Bureau research into outsider weapons technology has yielded promising results in the form of a prototype light plasma pistol. Not as bulky as its Outsider predecessor, this compact weapon fires condensed bolts of plasma and boasts a vastly improved rate-of-fire, giving players an early edge in the secret war for humanity’s survival.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified will ship on on August 20 in North America and August 23 internationally. 2K Games has not announced whether an Xbox One version of The Bureau or PS4 version of The Bureau will be available. The versions currently slated for release will carry a $59.99 MSRP — which is the same as the Xbox One game prices and PS4 game prices.