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Asteroids Rebooted as an Online Survival Game

• Emma Paquette
• February 11th, 2015

Atari has announced the development and upcoming release of Asteroids: Outpost. Yes, this is being labeled as a reboot of the classic 1979 arcade space shooter by Atari, but it’s looking almost nothing like the original. Instead of updating the classic game mode, this revival will be a sandbox style, open world, survival game. Players are cast as a miner in outer space who must build and defend a base in an asteroid belt while also growing their fortunes. Essentially, as the press release itself put it, the player must literally go “from rocks to riches.”

Asteroids: Outpost is set in the distant future on- shockingly- an asteroid in deep space. The player can explore the asteroid while collecting resources and finding ore. Players can use such material to craft equipment and expand their territory with custom and personalized bases. In the multiplayer gameplay, players can also form alliances with each other or fight each other off their land. Showers of smaller asteroids will also pose a challenge- these projectiles must be shot down to defend territory from damage and collect the valuable components that they’re made up of. Chief Executive Officer of Atari stated that these “asteroid blasting capabilities” are Atari’s way of paying homage to the title while also “introducing a completely new premise” for Asteroids: Outpost.

Asteroids: Outpost is being developed by Salty Games for the PC. Members of the team are described as “industry veterans” who have AAA development experience on games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Call of Duty: Ghost, and Star Trek Online. Atari, meanwhile, announced last year that they would revive Haunted House: Cryptic Graves and Alone in the Dark: Illumination. Atari says that this latest and most ambitious re-imagining will be coming to Steam Early Access soon.

Some concept art was released along with this announcement. Check them out below.