GameTap closing Atlanta office, focusing on newer PC titles

The slow transition of GameTap since "partnering" with Metaboli back in 2008 continues, with the company shutting down its Atlanta "technical and support team" and sharing some details about the future of the service. Speaking with Joystiq, a GameTap representative explained that by bringing operations to France, the company will "simplify the technical architecture" and can create a "global support center based in Europe." The Atlanta office will be closed down at the end of October, while the company's San Francisco office will recruit ten people over the next year to "strengthen [GameTap's] presence with major U.S. partners, distributors or publishers."

As for the immediate future of GameTap, the next update to the service will also occur at the end of this month, when all the games will use a new download technology and be 64-bit compatible. The company is trying to move away from being associated with retro games -- with the possibility of dropping its brand name altogether in the future. For now, the update will create three major tabs on the GameTap site: "PC games Unlimited Play," "PC games Download to Own" and "Retro games Unlimited Play."

"We need to show that we have moved forward and that we now offer a wide range of recent PC games," the GameTap representative said. The company will add 15 more games to its catalog of 550 PC games. "Some old PC games will be replaced by more recent PC games or by some casual games. Our decisions were taken based on our gameplay statistics, which is much better than our own opinion about the games or the opinion expressed by some of our users on the forum. We offer what people play."

We've listed the games being added to the service following the October update after the break. Additionally, you can check out Metaboli.com's PC game catalog for a sense of the kind of games GameTap hopes to offer going forward.

More recent PC games being added to the service:

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• Assassin's Creed 2

• Colin McRae DiRT 2

• Company of Heroes - Tales of Valor

• Street Fighter IV

• Titan Quest Immortal Throne

• Tomb Raider Underworld

• Tom Clancy's EndWar

• Tropico 3 - Absolute Power

• World in Conflict - Complete Edition