Atari recently purchased Cold Fear rights and may re-release or remake the 2005 game

Polygon reports that Atari recently purchased the rights to Ubisoft’s 2005 survival horror game Cold Fear and may re-release or remake the title. Developed by now-defunct Darkworks, Cold Fear places players aboard a Russian whaling ship adrift in the Bering Sea “in the teeth of a winter storm,” according to the game’s manual.

The game’s signature gimmick was ship movement driven by a custom “Darkwave editor” that separately generated pitch and roll, which lead programmer Claude Levastre said the team used to create realistic movement; gameplay mixed fixed-camera and over-the-shoulder views, put players in the role of U.S.

coast guardsman Tom Hansen, and omitted an in-game map in favor of the manual. Cold Fear earned above-average reviews but reportedly sold about 70,000 copies in its first year and has since found a positive reception on Steam and on GOG.com (where it remains available). Atari said last summer it plans to re-release titles like Cold Fear under its publishing label and potentially bring them to new platforms with new content, saying, “We’re excited to reintroduce these titles while also exploring ways to expand and evolve these franchises,” Wade Rosen, chairman and CEO of Atari, said at the time.

Key Topics

Culture, Atari, Cold Fear, Darkworks, Darkwave Editor, Tom Hansen