Crispy Gamer News

It’s almost time to fire up the ol’ Ecto-1 again, Ghostbusters fans. Terminal Reality’s upcoming video game take on the classic comedy flicks has been lost in ethereal plane for some time now. First, the game was set to come out last year via a publishing deal with Activision. The game even got a huge push from the publisher at Comic-Con International in San Diego. Then, in the wake of the massive Activision/Blizzard merger, the game was surprisingly cut from the Activision lineup. Eventually, it ended up with a new home over at Atari, but with no firm release on the calendar other than sometime in 2009.

That all changed yesterday, though the news didn’t come out of Atari, but rather Sony Pictures, who is gearing up for the 25th anniversary of the Ghostbusters film debut. In a release sent out yesterday, Sony Pictures announced plans to bring the film to hi-def Blu-ray on the week of June 16th. The Blu-ray disc will be released, according to Sony Pictures, in time with the “simultaneous launch of Ghostbusters: The Video Game, the highly anticipated videogame from Atari, celebrates the film’s 25th anniversary, with an all-new adventure from by the film’s original writers.”

“This great franchise is one of the crown jewels in the studio’s library,” said Lexine Wong, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Senior Executive Vice President, Worldwide Marketing. “With Ghostbusters 25th anniversary upon us and the forthcoming release of an eagerly anticipated new video game, this is the perfect opportunity to release this exciting new edition on Blu-ray Disc.”

So, come the week of June 16th, gamers will finally get their hands on Ghostbusters, and both Activision and Atari will know for sure just how smart it was to cast off and pick up the eagerly anticipated title. For fans, all they’ll have to remember is “Don’t cross the streams!”

The Independent Games Festival has named the finalists for its 2009 Independent Games Festival event taking place later this year as part of the Game Developers Conference. The finalists were culled from 226 entries, a 30 percent over last year’s entrants. More importantly, this year’s finalists come in all shapes and sizes - from web games to PlayStation Network games. The selections were made by 40 industry professionals and journalists whose egos are already too big to mention here.

It brings me great joy to see such personal favorites as Mightier and BrainPipe getting the nod, but makes me very sad to see games like Minotaur China Shop and Hinterland excluded from this list.. Oh well.

As always, all of the finalists games will available in playable form on the GDC show floor, and will compete for nearly $50,000 in prizes, including awards for Innovation, Excellence in Design, and the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize, as well as a prize from sponsor Direct2Drive. Full list after the break.

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You spin me right round Sony .. or at least you’d like to.

Sony sent out an interesting release about its holiday sales that did not actually address coming in dead last in Dec. , but rather how great the PS3 is as a full-featured Blu-ray enabled entertainment and gaming device. The chart above compares the big three (the lowest entry points from each manufacturer — PS3 80GB - $399, Xbox 360 Arcade - $199, Wii - $249) based on space, Blu-ray, support, Wi-fi support out of the box, the cost of online gaming and HDMI cable support. Here’s some finely craft, grade A spin from Sony to set the mood:

 

The PS3 is the perfect example of a product featuring superior technology and a sophisticated design creating an ideal all-in-one entertainment product. The Xbox 360 requires additional money, multiple upgrades and additional external devices, putting a burden on the wallet and adds clutter to the entertainment center. And the Wii’s lack of enhanced features comes at the expense of a comprehensive entertainment solution. So as PS3 continues to evolve without the need for additional parts or expenses, expect the competition to continue peddling add-ons in an effort to keep up with the Jones’.

Too bad the Jones’ are probably broke, just like the Smiths’, and the Washingtons’. It is hard to deny that much of what Sony says is true, but a lot of the argument is irrelevant. The question the company really needs to address is how do they get consumers to purchase a game system that is $200 more than the Xbox 360 and $150 more than the Wii when the economy will continue to be in the shit for at least the next six months - if not longer. My advice? A price cut.

Welcome to the first Rundown of 2009. Are you ready for 2009? I hope this year won’t suck as bad as last year. Now onto today’s light news stories: Street Fighter IV controllers, and update to A Murder of Crows, a new Elebits game hits retails, more MySims games announced and the release of Saint’s Row 2 for PC - all after the jump.

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Sony has denied reports that it was considering additional restructuring actions beyond what it had announced in December. The speculation came from  a report over the weekend that said the company planned a big corporate upheaval. This might include more job cuts, dramatic changes to management and manufacturing processes, according to UK-based paper, the Times of London. If true, the restructuring would probably be announced after the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Naturally Sony flatly denies the report saying that it has no further beyond the job cuts and plant closures it unveiled in December. 

“We announced the restructuring of the electronics business last month,” said Sony spokesman Atsuo Omagari, speaking to Bloomberg. “We are not planning to announce further restructuring at this time.”

Nielson released some interesting numbers for consoles played in 2008 (Jan. to Oct.) that reveal the PlayStation 2 as the most popular. Based on the percentage of of all console-gaming minutes played, the PS2 scored 30.2 percent, beating out the Xbox 360 (18.3 percent) and Wii (13.5 percent). Meanwhile, the last generation Xbox (9.1 percent) beat out the PS3 (7.7 percent) and GameCube (4.4 percent). “Other” (we assume mobile phones, PSP, DS and other devices) managed 16.9 percent.

Another report from Nielson also showed that World of Wacraft was the most popular PC game, raking in an impressive 671 minutes per week. Other popular games included Warcraft III (328 minutes), Half-Life 2 (288 minutes), Spore (268 minutes), and PopCap Games’ (133 minutes).