Gathering, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive, Inc. today announced the development of two new titles in the popular Close Combat series.

Both Close Combat: First to Fight and Close: Combat: Red Phoenix are currently in development at Atomic Games, and are scheduled for release on the Xbox, PC and Mac in late 2004 and early 2005 respectively.

Both games will offer a substantially different experience, with First to Fight pitting players in a team-based first-person-shooter created under the guidance of active-duty United States Marines; whilst Red Phoenix is a real-time-strategy title that is loosely based on the best-selling novel Red Phoenix by Larry Bond.

"We are pleased to add the next two installments of the Close Combat series to Gathering's expanding portfolio," said Jeffrey C. Lapin, Chief Executive Officer of Take-Two. "Destineer's management team has substantial experience in delivering high quality entertainment products and we are excited to be working with them on these and other compelling titles."

"Gathering understands how to market and distribute hit games," said Paul Rinde, Chief Executive Officer of Destineer. "We chose to work with Gathering and Take-Two because of the strength of their global publishing and distribution capabilities."

We’ll have more information soon.