Ghostbusters 3: The Video Game, the video game sequel to the classic movies, has finally been picked up by a publisher; Atari will release the game in 2009.
Ghostbusters was highly anticipated before it’s release as it re-unites all the key players of the previous two Ghostbusters movies, including stars Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Bill Murray who return to reprise their roles as Spenglar, Stantz, Zeddmore and Venkman. Also including the talents of Annie Potts, Brian Doyle Murray and William Antherton in everything from the storyline to the game’s setting, script and voice acting.
However the game was left in limbo when it’s original publisher, Sierra, was killed off by the Activision/Vivendi merger. Now Atari will publish the game “early next summer” to coincide with the first movie’s 25th anniversary!
Atari also picked up another game that was left in limbo, the new Riddick game, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, which they will release next Spring.
And not only did they snag up the new Riddick game, they also signed a deal with Universal (who owns the rights to the Riddick franchise) to make further games based on the Riddick character (played by Vin Diesal). Which should make fans of the critically acclaimed first-person shooters very happy. To pay development on both titles (Ghostbusters and Riddick), Atari paid Activision a flat, undisclosed fee.
Sounds like a great move to me by Atari, both games should be big hits both sales-wise and critically, so kudos on Atari for not letting these games slip by unpublished.