“We are thrilled to have Destineer’s Close Combat series in our hands,” said David Heath, Operations Manager of Matrix Games. “These games are, even by today’s standards, superior entertainment.”

“ We are excited to be working with Matrix Games for the update to the classic Close Combat series,” Cindy Swanson of Destineer was quoted as saying. “They bring to the table exactly what we need to make this rock-solid production even better.”

Destineer purchased Atomic Games last year, thereby obtaining the Close Combat series. Now, Matrix Games will be working closely with Destineer to bring this exemplary game back to the wargaming community.

Close Combat is a real time two-player series of games spanning some of the grittiest World War II action in gaming, in either single battles or large campaigns. Players command squads and vehicles and lead their men from battle to battle, earning promotions and medals, challenging the player to see them through the end of the conflict.

The original Close Combat series, released between 1996 and 2000, virtually created the genre of military real-time strategy games. Created by Atomic and originally published by Microsoft®, the result was a groundbreaking game series that sold over 1.2 million units and went on to win dozens of military strategy game awards, as well as being named by PC Gamer as one of “The 50 Best Games Ever” in October, 1998. Still recognized for its highly realistic simulation of battlefields, Close Combat was named one of the “Top 10 Strategy Games of All Time” in February of 2004 by GameSpy.