Cryo Interactive made Dune and Atlantis — a decade later, one flop killed it

Cryo Interactive was founded in 1990 by Rémi Herbulot, growing out of a developer group from 1989. It became one of France's most prominent game developers, specialising in graphic adventures and historical simulations. Its famous titles included Dune (1992), an early CD-ROM adventure that helped establish the multimedia game format; MegaRace (1993); the Atlantis series (1997–2001); and historical sims Versailles and Egypt. At its peak it had multiple studios and a North American subsidiary.

In 2001, Cryo closed its North American branch, Cryo Studios, citing the worldwide recession in the games industry. The company then bet heavily on Frank Herbert's Dune (2002), a real-time strategy game based on the Dune licence that was intended to replicate the success of the 1992 original. The game was poorly received by critics and sold far below expectations.

The failure of Frank Herbert's Dune was the final blow. Cryo's share price collapsed and it was unable to negotiate a debt restructuring with creditors. In July 2002 the company filed for insolvency and made over 80% of its workforce redundant. In October 2002, Cryo Interactive was placed into liquidation. Its assets and intellectual property were acquired by DreamCatcher Interactive, a former subsidiary that later became part of Microïds.

Cryo's liquidation marked the end of one of France's pioneering game companies. Its decline was attributed not only to the Dune flop but to declining game quality, poor distribution, and an over-reliance on historical adventure games as the market shifted toward 3D action titles. The studio that had helped define the CD-ROM adventure genre was gone.