Asteroids is "the first of a long series of re-births"

And so it begins. Asteroids: Outpost is a new multiplayer third-person sandbox survival game based on the classic Atari IP, and it has just released on Steam Early Access.

For the first week it's available for £16.49 (it'll be £24.99 in a few days), although customer reviews on Steam are mixed and paint a picture of a game released too early, even by Early Access standards. We've not played it yet, so we're reserving judgement until we've taken our own look.

The release of this game is perhaps most notable because it's potentially heralding a slew of such re-imaginings, with the publisher seemingly intent on revisiting a whole host of franchises from yesteryear.

"This is part of our new strategy. We are going to be teaming up with young and innovative studios to take a refreshing look at each game from our extensive portfolio," said Atari COO Todd Shallbetter.

"Releasing Asteroids: Outpost through the Early Access program will also help us get feedback from the community. Asteroids is the first of a long series of re-births, and we are considering doing the same for our other iconic games such as Warlords, Adventure, Tempest, Missile Command and many more."

It's interesting that Shallbetter mentions Tempest, because that series is currently in the spotlight because Atari are going after Jeff Minter over the rather excellent TxK, which is an evolution of the original Tempest concept. If they're looking for a studio to reboot that particular series, then perhaps rather than getting the lawyers involved, they should get Minter onboard.