Variety is reporting that Sony has released a statement that the Ghostbusters game will be published in 2009 to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the original film, which also gives them time to explore various options for its distribution. Activision Blizzard is said to be helping explore those options with Sony. This doesn’t preclude Activision or a subsidiary being involved in the end, but it does help confirm that the game is pushed back. No word on any delay in the Blu-ray release. Cheers up. The game will see the light of day and appropriately as part of the anniversary.
[UPDATE] Thank you to Mr. Green who sent along this link to a Kotaku article – they just got a preview burn of the game, but it’s impossible to tell if it was sent prior to the Activision announcement or after (which would then help suggest if the disc was sent as part of an old PR plan, or as a post-release PR plan to keep the hype going.) The disc was burnt on the 16th of July, so it feels like it was sent prior to everything shuffling – but, it does mean we’ll see more details on the current state of the game soon.
And a big thanks to Mr. Troy, who scanned the Variety article, for those of us who don’t read the Hollywood trades every day.
[NOTE] I won’t be posting every article out there on this matter – most are rehashes of other articles, who in a lot of cases are sensational and unhelpful. However, when an interesting one pops up, I’ll share. However, that doesn’t mean you guys can’t (and already have been) posting links in the comments (biggest PC discussion yet!) – please though, rather than dumping the long links in there, take the extra step and code it into your post.
< A HREF="http://www.link-address.com">my link!< /A>
will get you…
my link!
(take the spaces out between < A and < / or it won’t work)
For those of you that posted bit links already, I’ll take care of those, but in the future, if you’ll link as above, I’d appreciate it.
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I sure hope that the game doesn’t get canceled, but if anyone should know, it’d be someone other then Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis (who I can imagine are both probably damn well annoyed by all of this as well) that worked on the game.
I just hope that its all rumors, and Caste, I know that you said we’re not owed a decent Ghostbusters game, but I think you should replay the NES one and then rethink that, what a POS that was, so bad, so very, very bad.
I just hope it doesn’t get delayed for the anniversary, I mean, June is 10 months away, compared to the 2 months of this coming October.
lol Agreed, in a perfect world, we’re owed a new game.
Hey guys I don’t you seen it on ign but they even think its a bs rumor by a nameless rep hahahah check it out
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/896/896422p1.html
GBFAN79 he’s not exactly calling BS per se, just pointing out the vague nature of the statement and the anonymity of the rep who made it.
Everyday this turns into more of a CSI investigation. Like I wrote above the idea that activision would know before (or even during) comic con that they were not going to publish it and to still go ahead with the demo booth just floors me! Not to mention keeping Ryan Fremch in the dark about the game being dropped and delayed! Doesn’t make sense
It makes a fair amount of sense – Just like Sony Consumer Products isn’t the same as the other arms of Sony, Activision isn’t the same thing as Sierra. I’d imagine people high enough at Sierra may have known things were in flux, but you don’t then go to comic con (paid for by Sierra, not Activision) and say “Hey, things might change!”
All i know (based on the footage i saw) is that activision’s logo not sierra’s was all over that demo presentation.
Yes, the merger had started well before then, hence the Activision logo. But it was still being handled by the Sierra group. Ryan French, for example, is a Sierra producer. I’m just saying it’s not hard to believe the big boss wasn’t telling the subsidiaries everything right away. And if they did, it serves no purpose for the guys at Comic Con to tell the public.
# Lanny D. Crepit [aka "Ectofiend"] August 2, 2008 6:37 pm
*To add something constructive here: Paul – Another interesting equipment name change in the last article you posted the link to: “Once dazed, you can lure them toward a Muon Containment Trap” – ”MUON Containment Trap”?!…
I must have either overlooked that or thought it was a blaster/trap hybrid, like the Skeptec in RGB “The Treasure of Sierra Tamale”. Hopefully the goggles and trap in the game are advanced versions and not the equipment we’ve all known and loved for the past 24 years. That would make the new names easier to accept.
# castewar August 2, 2008 10:03 pm
What do you think Sony’s role in this is and given the turn of events, what do you think they should do?
Sony Consumer Products should get Sony Computer Entertainment (of America and worldwide) to publish the game. Simple and to the point.
# Chris August 2, 2008 11:06 pm
Where does Sierra fit in all this? I mean until recently the game had their name on it. Now I realize that they are a part of vivendi which is now a part of activision but maybe, just maybe is it possible (and if it’s not enlighten me please) that Sierra could publish the game independently without the Activsion brand?
Sierra hasn’t been a game company is quite a while. From the day the game was announced, Sierra was nothing more than a brand. To put it more simply, Sierra is a NAME and nothing more. At the time of the game’s announcement, the Sierra name was owned by Vivendi; now it’s owned by Activision. In all likelihood, now that Activision owns the name, it’ll be retired and never used again.
So, to answer your original question, where Sierra fits is nowhere as they are slowly ceasing to exist.
# castewar August 3, 2008 5:31 pm
The trouble with anything on the Activision site is that it won’t be changed quickly – the website maintainers don’t change a thing unless they get the say so from above, which in turn is waiting for orders above them, and so on.
Buy who ordered Vivendi’s games to appear on Activision.com and the Activision logo to be added to the US GB Game site in the first place? Why order those changes to be made if you haven’t decided what you’re going to do with your newly bought properties?
# Patrick L. August 4, 2008 6:31 am
if anyone would know that the game isn’t being released in october Ryan French would and if you read it he said himself that the october release date is sticking.
He could have simply been lying to keep up appearances. A remark Ryan made to a Comic-Con visitor is hardly official. If he had said it on an official forum, like the Game panel, then it would be considered official.
Of course, it’s possible that word of the game’s fate simply didn’t trickle down to him by that time. Chris mentioned this in his comment from August 4, 2008 8:52 pm: …Activision isn’t the same thing as Sierra. I’d imagine people high enough at Sierra may have known things were in flux, but you don’t then go to comic con (paid for by Sierra, not Activision) and say “Hey, things might change!”
How is SCEA publishing this game themselves a simple solution?
I very much doubt they’ve got the licensing in place to produce Xbox360 or Wii games and i think it becoming a Ps2/3 exclusive at this stage would possibly upset a few people too.
I’m from Australia and stop in at EB games pretty much everyday on the way to or from work. I stop in today (August 6) and for the first time EVER, I see Ghostbusters dummy boxes. I was there the day before and they weren’t there, I asked the guy in the store when those display boxes came in he said “we only just got ‘em”.
This is the first retail promotion the game has gotten in this country to date. Why now? You can give me the “late mailing” excuse just like the disc mystery but like I said August 6!
Whose name was on the box? Sierra. Don’t know what to make of that. Was there a date on the back? Afraid not (damn!)
There were two things that caught my eye:
1) The logo on the box was the NEW logo, the one with the “shadowy” no ghost symbol and the “un-logoised” letter “o”
2) the game was rated. I don’t know about america but here in australia games don’t get rated until wheels are seriously in motion towards it coming out. Hell we don’t get the dummy boxes unless they’re really coming.
I’m trying not to make TOO much of this but there is definetly something afoot if this were JUST put out.
One other thing, I only saw dummy boxes in the Wii and Ps2 section. When I asked why there wern’t any for the other formats the guy said “we don’t always get ‘em all right away”
Chris..it actually works the same in America I worked in a game store for about a year..and we only got dummy boxes just before the game was ready for release….same goes for the rating thing…Now I am convinced that my theory about this being a marketing strategy is true…but I don’t wanna make to much of this…but it’s still very interesting.
hey guys hope everyone is doing well he is a little insider of what adam sessler thinks about activisions decision and he makes alot of sense.
look for your self
http://www.g4tv.com/thepile/videos/27623/Sesslers_Soapbox_Gamings_New_Evil_Empire.html
Parick L what do you mean by a marketing strategy? Strategy for what?
Chris…A marketing strategy where they cause all this commotion in order to judge how well the game is gonna do by looking at the reaction of the fans..it’s been done before…like when GTA IV was ready to come out the company said that they were gonna push the game back another year or something..and when they saw how outraged people got they were able to judge that the game was gonna do extremely well.
Yeah i don’t know about that. I don’t outright believe the game is coming out on schedule nor do I outright believe that it’s being delayed at all. All i know is what i’m hoping. I hope that everything that’s happened in the last week and a half is a ‘false alarm” but I doubt it would all be a marketing ploy. GTA IV had a lot of bugs that needed to be tweaked but couldn’t have been done in time, hense the delay. Plus no one needed to gauge whether GTA IV was going to be a hit, it’s GTA for christ’s sake, it was a sure thing from the start.
That said there is quite a bit of speculation going on right now on the gamespot forums from a number of gamestop employees who (still) strongly believe the game is coming soon and have full knowledge of what’s been going on. One in particular says that the name of the games publisher changed in their database FROM activision to sierra. He claims he checked on august 4 and it had changed which made him believe that activision has handed over the reigns to sierra. He also CLAIMED that his manager knows someone in the industry (doesn’t everyone) who strongly believes the game is till on track for oct.
Don’t know what to believe? it’s the internet who does?
True chris…I guess I thought of all thought because I was just clinging to some kind of hope that the game wasn’t gonna be delayed..now that i think about it..my theory is kinda far-fetched…and actually your comment has made me feel a whole lot better..and i kno what your saying about gamestop employees beliveing the game is still set for october because the store near me..the guys there told me the same thing about sierra last night..now i’m feeling a little more confident about it coming out in october.
Just got the following email from game.co.uk
“Dear Mr Joad
Thank you for the following order placed with GAME.
Order number(s):
********/*
As you may already be aware, the UK release date for Ghostbusters has changed to 01-Mar-2009. Changes to release dates are relatively common in the videogames industry and are unfortunately beyond our control.
Don’t worry, your order is still live and will be despatched prior to its release date via your chosen method of delivery.”
not looking too great for the octoberists.
Hey there, just checked the Game website and they do indeed have Ghostbusters tht video game down for release on the date as said above. But…………. only the xbox 360 version when i last checked. Wonder why that is. Maybe the others are playing catch up or something i don’t know. Seems the most logical solution to me. It’ll be interesting to see if only the sony games stay on course or if in fact all the games will soon follow suit.
Just thought it was weird thats all.
All this second-guessing is driving me nuts! When the hell are we gonna get some offical word on this!?
Bucky are you from the UK or States? Cause We still have October 21st here in the states
To bucky
Hey also i went to the website game.co.uk or something and if you notice doesnt the release dates look staggered like ps2 and wiii come out in oct sony in nov xbox and pc in march idk what their plan is
GUY I HAVE OFFICIAL WORD FROM MARK RANDIEL FROM TERMINAL REALITY THAT THE GAME IS GOING TO BE PUBLISHED. NEW IGN UPDATE!!!!
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/897/897111p1.html
To GBFAN79
Yeah i am from the UK. I did notice the sporadic release dates of the different versions too. I just put it down to Game not 100% knowing when the games were coming out.
By the way Game website has also put the pc version down for next year too. I wonder if the ps3 and ps2 version will come out 1st followed by the others next year with a different publisher. Much like The Orange Box did with EA.
Release dates on game.co.uk changed again…this time..the ps2 and ps3 version will be released in october…the wii and DS in november..and the pc and 360 version on January 3, 2009..interesting..it’s times like this I have the wii, ps2, ps3, and 360…and I reserved copies for those systems…so either way I may be getting a copy in october..lol
I just wish we’d get some news on this, other then “Ghostbusters will be published” Yeah, but by who, and when is it due.
Ugh, all I know is that Activision ****ing sucks for all of this, f you Activision.