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!”

(Contributors: Adam Oldakowski - Managing Director GOG.com, Hal Halpin - ECA President, Tom Ohle - CD Projekt RED, Rich Carlson - Digital Eel, Eric Holmes - Radical Entertainment, and Game Trust members Evan Narcisse, Gus Mastrapa, David Chapman and James Fudge)

Crispy Gamer wraps up its Top 21 News Stories of 2008 with our top 7 news stories. See what stories were the most interesting and had the most impact on the game industry and gamers in 2008. We start with #7 right now.  Also be sure to check out #8 - 14 and #15 - 21, if you haven’t already.

Next: #7 –>

Take Two has officially given up on publishing Cryptic Studios’ upcoming superhero MMO, Champions Online. Not a big shock considering that the developer that brought us City of Heroes is now owned by troubled publisher Atari. Atari will bring Champions online to PC and Xbox 360, as planned, next year. The game is based on the work Cryptic did for a Marvel Comics-based MMO for Xbox 360 and PC, that was cancelled earlier this year.

I’m honestly concerned about the direction Cryptic Studios is heading. First it leaves City of Heroes behind to create a Marvel MMO, which then gets cancelled. Then, just when the company seemed to be on the right track it hires ex-Flagship founder Bill Roper and allows itself to be acquired by Atari, who is not in the greatest financial shape as of late. This in turn will put added pressure on Cryptic to deliver a AAA hit that sells millions. This environment can’t be good for Cryptic in the long term. That’s my opinion, what do you think?

Interesting news this week out of Ubisoft. It looks like the publisher just isn’t happy with its current size. During a presentation at the 36th Annual UBS Global Media Conference, Ubi CFO Alain Martinez is currently negotiating with at least three different studios for possible acquisition.

“We have about three deals within the five million Euro range, each of them, that we are negotiating,” said Martinez. “Probably, one or two of them will be closed in the next three or four months.”

This year has seen no shortage of acquisitions and mergers in the video game industry, and Ubisoft has already picked up more than a few studios of its own, most recently acquiring World in Conflict developer, Massive Entertainment.

And while Ubisoft seems to be eager to snap up available studios, it recently missed out on one major acquisition. According to Martinez, Ubisoft was in talks to pick up MMO developer Cryptic Studios, only to lose out to Atari earlier this week.

“We lost one deal which we were a bit mad,” he said. “We lost Cryptic. It’s a U.S. company. That was taken by Atari [and] we were a bit disappointed.”

Y’know, maybe it’s just me, but I remember a time not too long ago when Atari seemed to be on life support with Death knocking at the company’s door. Well, I’d love to get some of the vitamins it’s been taking these days, because Atari didn’t just slam the door in Death’s face, but it’s hit the ground running.

First came word that the publisher had picked up two major released in the aftermath of the Activision/Vivendi merger, Ghostbusters and The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. Now the company has put together a deal to acquire California based MMO developer Cryptic Studios, lock, stock, and barrel.

Cryptic Studios, which first made a name for itself with the superhero themed MMO title,City of Heroes, has been on a major roll recently. The company eventually sold off its stake in City of Heroes to NCsoft, and was on tap to develop a new MMO for the PC and 360 for Microsoft, based off the Marvel Comics stable of characters. Although the Marvel deal fell apart, due to Microsoft and Marvel being unable to agree on the direction of the game, Cryptic decided not to abandon the superhero MMO formula, using its capital to buyout the popular pen and paper role-playing property, Champions, and starting development of the upcoming MMO, Champions Online. And if that wasn’t enough, Cryptic also managed to score itself another big property, with the development of a new MMO based on the Star Trek universe.

According to a statement released today to investors, Infogrames (Atari’s parent company) will shell out an upfront payment of $27.6 million, with an additional estimated “maximum earn-out” totaling another $27.5 million in cash and Infogrames stock. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a clause in the deal which could give Cryptic shareholders another $20 million bonus in cash or Infogrames stock if Champions Online and Star Trek Online both outperform an undisclosed target in online revenue for 2010-2011.

“We share a common vision with Atari and their leadership team.” said John Needham, Chief Executive Officer of Cryptic Studios, “With our game development and online platform technology skills, we’re very excited about the opportunities that this unique combination with Atari creates. I am committed to helping Atari grow into a leading online game company and look forward to being part of the team.”

According to David Gardner, CEO of Infogrames, “The acquisition of Cryptic Studios brings to Infogrames an outstanding creative organisation, with a proven track-record of success in the fast-growing MMO category. Cryptic’s success is founded on leading-edge technology and the vision of a seasoned executive management team. I am impressed with the tools and technology that Cryptic has developed to make MMOs less expensive to build. Creating vast worlds and interesting interactions can be very people intensive but with the use of Cryptic’s toolset they have a proven way of cutting average production costs in half. This is exactly the type of company we wanted to acquire in order to build Atari for the 21st century.”

Earlier today, Atari and developer CCP Games announced they’ve entered into a partnership which will see Atari exclusively distribute boxed versions of CCP’s MMO, EVE Online. The game, which has been around since 2003, will begin popping up in retail outlets in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions starting March 2009. In addition, Atari will provide trade marketing services to augment CCP’s consumer marketing initiatives for the game.

According to Atari’s announcement, the new retail distribution deal for EVE Online comes at a time of rapid subscriber growth and technical advancements in the game. EVE Online has attracted nearly 250,000 active subscribers and it has progressed on a technical level which can support massive battles of over 1000 players with minimal lag. In addition, CCP plans to enhance gameplay by rolling out a series of free expansions in 2009.
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Who you gonna call? Apparently, Atari.

Confirming recent rumors, Atari officially announced this morning that it has secured the publishing rights to the hotly anticipated Ghostbusters: The Video Game after it went MIA from Vivendi during the post Activision/Blizzard merger fallout. The game will be released next year, timed to coincide with Sony Pictures’ planned 25th anniversary celebration of the film’s original theatrical release.
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