The once-monolithic Atari hasn’t made a lot of noise in recent years, but the publisher hopes to change that at PAX Prime with first looks at plans to reboot both Alone in the Dark and Haunted House (via Game Informer).
Details are scant at this point. The official website for each game confirm both developers and release windows. Alone in the Dark’s return — titled Alone in the Dark: Illumination — is the product of an unknown studio called Pure. Haunted House (that’s the title) is the work of Dreampainters, the team behind the PC-only first-person horror game, Anna. Both games are coming in fall 2014.
The Alone in the Dark series hasn’t been seen since 2008, when Eden Games offered an inventive take set in and around New York City’s Central Park. That game was praised for its ambition, but it ultimately failed to resonate due to an assortment of bugs and technical issues. A PlayStation 3 re-release bearing the subtitle Inferno fixed some of what was wrong, but it wasn’t enough to reignite interest.
Haunted House is one of the oldest brands in the Atari vault, a relic from the Atari 2600 era that amounts to one of gaming’s earliest efforts in the horror genre. It was reborn in 2010 with a download-only sequel that was released for PC, Wii, and Xbox Live Arcade.
Both games amount to late additions for the fall 2014 calendar, and PAX Prime should bring some tangible details given the event’s proximity to Atari’s planned release window. The subject matter of the two games likely means they’ll surface sometime in October, but we’ll have to wait for confirmation from the publisher before we get too excited.
PAX Prime kicks off on August 29 and runs through September 2 in Seattle, Wash., so expect more news on both of these titles in the coming days.
