Atomic Games Developing 'Historical Action' Shooter

After operating in near-stealth for almost three years, veteran developer Atomic Games has reannounced its existence and confirmed it is working on a "historical action" multiplatform shooter. The Raleigh, North Carolina-based studio has rounded up co-founders of nearby Tom Clancy's-focused Red Storm Entertainment, as well as former staffers of Bungie, Activision, and Electronic Arts. It now maintains a 75-person team developing for PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Originally founded in 1989, Atomic has traditionally focused on historical strategy and tactics games, and is best known for the Close Combat series of World War II real-time strategy titles, which has won a number of awards and sold millions of units in total. In 2006, the company re-formed. Said current Atomic president Peter Tamte, "What’s always made Atomic unique is the way it translates real-life tactics and events into new kinds of games." Keith Zabaloui, the company's original founder, added, "Plus, the activities and missions that occurred in real life are often more interesting than anything someone could have made up." The studio bears some relationship to publisher Destineer, although the nature of the association is not entirely clear. Atomic's official website notes it was acquired by Destineer in 2005, but elsewhere claims the company is privately held, with numerous investors including the CIA-funded venture capital firm In-Q-Tel. Regardless, the as-yet-unnamed upcoming title will apparently not be published by Destineer, but rather by "one of the world's top five video game publishers."