Activision Goes Retro

Monday, Activision announced that it has acquired the rights from Atari/JTS Corporation to develop new titles based on Asteroids and Battlezone.

"Asteroids and Battlezone are two of the most recognized game franchises ever," Barry Kotick, Activision's Chairman and CEO stated today. "We have had great success using our proven product-making capabilities with many of our own franchises such as Pitfall and Zork, and we believe our new designs for Asteroids and Battlezone will deliver the same level of excitement as the original games did when they launched the video industry."

The coin-operated version of Asteroids was introduced by Atari in 1979, and Battlezone, the first 3-D video game ever made, followed in 1980.

The contemporary Battlezone won't look much like the original, however. Activision is planning to make the title an action/strategy hybrid in which the player battles against the Soviets in an interplanetary war set in the 1960s.