Close Combat III: The Russian Front is a 1999computer wargame developed byAtomic Games and published byMicrosoft. It is the third game in theClose Combat series. It revolves around theEastern Front duringWorld War II, and takes players from the invasion of the Soviet Union to the final battle for Berlin in 1945. A remake,Close Combat: Cross of Iron, was released in 2007.
Battles follow the general pattern of theClose Combat series. Apart from a difficulty slider, there are realism settings which disable the fog of war, unit initiative, difficulty of access to enemy info, etc.
The Grand Campaign follows the Eastern Front from the German invasion of theSoviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), to Stalingrad and ultimately Berlin. Players can pick either side.
It sold 45,438 copies during 1999.[15] AuthorJames Dunnigan reported that it was the year's best-selling wargame.[16] According to Marc Dultz ofCNET Gamecenter, the title was profitable and achieved total sales of "well over 100,000 units" by April 1999.[17]
Following the release ofClose Combat III, Microsoft opted to discontinue theClose Combat franchise in early 1999.[17][20] The game and its predecessors had been profitable, butCNET Gamecenter's Dultz reported "indications that the company is now only interested in publishing games that have the potential of selling 250,000 units or more."[17] Atomic reacted that April by splitting from Microsoft and migrating toMindscape'sStrategic Simulations (SSI) label,[20] with the goal of creating a fourthClose Combat based on theBattle of the Bulge.[17] Later that year, Zabalaoui said that Microsoft had been "a terrific publisher", and that Atomic had "parted company [with it] as friends who may some day work together again."[21]
Close Combat IV: Battle of the Bulge was released in November 1999, followed byClose Combat: Invasion Normandy in October 2000. After Atomic's sale toDestineer in 2005,[22][23] its new parent partnered withMatrix Games to create expanded remakes of theClose Combat games,[24] starting withClose Combat III. The result wasClose Combat: Cross of Iron, released by Matrix and developer CSO Simtek in 2007.[25][26] Remakes ofBattle of the Bulge,Invasion Normandy andA Bridge Too Far followed,[27][28][29] along with the new titlesPanthers in the Fog (2012),Gateway to Caen (2014), andThe Bloody First (2019).[30][31][32][33][34]
Sales of Atomic's original fiveClose Combat games, includingClose Combat III, totaled 1.2 million units by the mid-2000s.[35][36][24] By 2018, the series contained 17 entries and had sold above 5 million units.[34]
^IGN staff (January 15, 1999)."News Briefs".IGN.Ziff Davis.Archived from the original on September 1, 2000. RetrievedApril 29, 2021.Close Combat Shipping: Microsoft has begun shipping Close Combat III, the third installment in its groundbreaking real-time wargaming series...
^Dunnigan, James F. (January 3, 2000).Wargames Handbook, Third Edition: How to Play and Design Commercial and Professional Wargames.Writers Club Press. pp. 14–17.
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