Let’s hear it for real gaming journalism – the Original Xbox Magazine did the sensible thing, and actually asked Activision for clarifiction;
“First and foremost, the game is not cancelled,” says our Activision spokesguy. As for the future, “The company is reviewing its options regarding those titles that it will not be publishing.” (We bet he says that to all the media outlets.)
So, to clarify: The statement never said the game was canned, only that Activision was choosing not to publish it under the Activision Publishing banner. It will likely be sold to another publisher, or maybe published by one company and distributed by Activision (much like the three-way dev/pub/dist deals on Guitar Hero and Rock Band). Hey, Activision could even create a new brand for all its movie-game licenses (Shrek, Kung-Fu Panda, James Bond) and do it not under Activision Publishing but as Activision Cinema or Activision Flix or something. You never know.
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even the sheer thought of these guys cancelling this game would be heartbreaking 4 me..and every other fan who have been waiting for this 4 so long…even delaying the game will frustrate me..ive been counting the days for this game and now it might b taken away…not happy!!1
This is not uncommon in video games though. A lot of games get pushed, stalled, canceled every year.
It’s disappointing when you’ve been in the know since last November that a game is coming, and then you have to wait, but waiting is better than it be canceled, right?
You’d think this whole thing would be a PR nightmare for both Activision and Sony. How embarrassing is it for a game as promoted as much as Ghostbusters to be delayed or, worst case scenario, cancelled?
It was never gonna cancelled, that’s ridiculous. Look at all the build up!
Still, I hope this doesn’t affect release dates, though I know it undoubtfully will (just to tick me off… I MUST HAVE THIS GAME D:)
Well, it’s a PR nightmare because the gaming press yelled “canceled”, when this is just something that came out of a merger involving several massive companies, publisher labels, and dev studios.
It’s a bump in the road, but it’ll smooth out soon I’ll bet.
Does this mean the release date has been pushed back…i’ll flip!!!
Dude, that doesn’t say anything new: we know it’s not “cancelled”… YET.
This is all over the gaming press, and having rumours going around that your game might be cancelled is BAD press. What worries me is, no one is coming out any saying anything substantial to calm all the fears. This is a multi-million dollar business, and someone should have come out and said, “Whoa, wait a minute, everyone… it’s not what you think!”… but, they haven’t. Instead, we get a scheduled appearance at Comic Con cancelled with no explanation. They know this all looks bad: and one can only conclude that their silence in the face of all the questions means that it IS bad.
Activision/Blizzard is the wealthiest game publisher on the planet. These guys are making, like, 150 million a MONTH off World of Warcraft ALONE. If a company with that much money in its pockets thinks Ghostbusters is a risky investment… then holy crap! These are guys who can literally do anything they want. They were handed Ghostbusters on a silver platter – it was theirs for the taking – and they decided it is not worth publishing.
And to add insult to injury – back in 1984, the Ghostbusters game was one of the games that put Activision on the map and allowed them to grow to become what they are now. To me, it’s a real slap in the face, for this company of all companies, to do this.
Yeah…well, time will tell, hopefully yielding more positive results. What stumps me, is that this property is a lock, why would people play hot potato with something apparently as solid as this?
Thats what I find worrisome…
I don’t think there is any sense in worrying about this at all. Like it’s been said… The product is near finished, at this point, financially, it would be a total loss to cancel it… and when it comes down to it, the bottom line is what matters. Too much money has been invested here for anything overly bad to happen.
“Dude, that doesn’t say anything new: we know it’s not “cancelled”… YET.”
Yeah, well tell that to my email in-box. I’m glad you’re so much more clever than the average bear, but a lot of people freaked out, thanks to gaming press headlines that specifically said that Ghostbusters was canceled.
That post DOES say something new – it was the first person in an official position on the game that said, “No, it’s not canceled.” That’s a big deal – you’re the one saying someone should have come out and said, “No, it’s not what you think.”
Well, that’s what this is.
As for Activision/Blizzard;
1) We have no idea what their plans are – it’s possible they may retain it, just not release it stamped with the Activision logo. We don’t know – the important part is that it’s still in production.
2) If you honestly think it’s weird that a company raking millions of dollars a month on a single title is cutting spending, I don’t know what to tell you. That’s exactly what corporations do, no matter how much money they make – and when companies merge, spending stops – it looks good. But this is assuming they’ve stopped spending on Ghostbusters. Again, for all we know at this point, the money is still going out, they just haven’t decided what subsidiary puts it out, or if they put it out itself.
G4 also contacted Activision and got the same response (either they just leeched from OXM’s article or Activision is giving the same canned response to all media outlets): Activision says Ghostbusters is not canceled. X-Play contacted an Activision Blizzard spokesperson who emailed: “Regarding Ghostbusters: The Video Game: First and foremost, the game is not cancelled,” but added: “In general (including Ghostbusters): The company is reviewing its options regarding those titles that it will not be publishing.”
By the way, GameSpot posted an update top their article as well: [UPDATE]: A Sierra Games representative told GameSpot he couldn’t speak about all the titles on the list in need of a publisher, but stressed that Ghostbusters is not canceled.
I think it might be safe to say that not only will they publish Ghostbusters, but that it will carry the Activision name. Otherwise, why bother adding it to the Activision website and branding the US official site for the game with the Activision logo? Those are two pretty important steps for a game that they’re only considering publishing.
I’m sure that there aren’t many of Sierra’s other titles that they bothered to do either of those two things for.
All in all, I think this whole thing was much a do about nothing. Heck, maybe it was done on purpose to create MORE buzz and hype for the game.
This is in response to Paul R. from Spook Central…I don’t care who publishes the game. As long as that game is in my hands ready for me to play it on October 21st, 2008..I really hope it doesn’t get pushed back..lol..and does anyone know when we’ll be able to download the demo of the game..that’ll at least hold me over till I get the game.