Ghostbusters, Brutal Legend still on track

By Robert Purchese Published 31 July, 2008

With or without Activision Blizzard.

Sony Pictures Entertainment, owner of the Ghostbusters licence, says the game will be released "one way or another".

This was one of the titles canned after publisher Sierra merged with Activision to become Activision Blizzard. But SPE is re-evaluating the marketing behind the adaptation and may launch next year, when the original film turns 25, according to Variety.

This may involve a new publishing deal, and more development time for the game.

Brutal Legend, the next project from Psychonauts hero Tim Schafer, was another game cut from the Activision Blizzard plan. However, developer Double Fine owns the rights and is said to be "very close" to signing a new publishing deal.

That may mean delaying the 2008 release as a fresh marketing strategy is put together.

The Bourne licence was another of the Activision Blizzard casualties, but has since been reacquired by Ludlum Entertainment - with sequels very much a possibility.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • redgiemental #1 4 years ago

    Brutal Legend looked like a fun if not particularly nuanced game. i enjoy Psychonauts and am looking forward to seeing what its like. I hope it doesn't have too much trouble finding a publisher.

  • Ged42 #2 4 years ago

    Cool stuff, I was worried that Brutal Legend and Ghostbusters might fall into development limbo.

    According to Double Fine Action News , " Brutal Legend is fine." (hold the mouse of the top picture of the Weevil) I'm sure we'll get an official word from Tim once he's delt with the far more pressing matter of the Weevil.

  • cheekyjay #3 4 years ago

    Sony Pictures and Sony Computer Entertainment seem poles apart. Sony Pictures uses the Sony name but is an amalgamation of several smaller studios which have long since merged, including companies like Columbia, Tri-Star, MGM (slightly complicated arrangement), etc... It would seem like a logical match for Sony Pictures' IPs to find their way to Sony-exclusive video-game tie-ins, but this rarely (if ever?) happens. Think back to the unveiling of the PS3 - Spiderman was the poster-child, with tech demos detailing a digital Alfred Molina, Spiderman 3 being the launch BluRay disc that was packed in with the console for some time, even the Playstation 3 logo is written in the same font as the Spiderman one... yet despite all this, Activision still hold the game-development rights, and Spiderman games continue to be released on the Xbox and Wii. Similar can be said of Casino Royale.

    Sony don't always work in the interests of SCE, as essentially their sub-divisions tend to go wherever the money is (and that tends to be in multi-platform), hence some MGM and Sony Pictures movies are starting to show up on Xbox Live and iTunes, and hence why Sony and Microsoft work so closely together on the Viao brand.

    Ghostbusters is unlikely to become a Sony platform exclusive - SCE will have to bid for the game just like EA and all the rest.
    Edited by 1 at 31/07/08 @ 12:26

  • jade2001 #4 4 years ago

    I'm so glad Ghostbusters is still going to happen

  • Doctor_What #5 4 years ago

    I'm happy to hear about them, but I stilll really want the Riddick game!

    'Escape from Butcher Bay' was one of the titles I was most excited about getting through backwards compat. when I bought my 360, but it has been blocked from that because it's being remade... Now the remake has been canned I might not get to play this. Dammit! (And damn the crappy MS locked BC on the 360 too.)

  • sneetch #6 4 years ago

    @cheekyjay

    Indeed, after all, while Sony Pictures were desperately fighting against video tape piracy another division of Sony was producing dual VHS recorders that were specifically designed to copy tapes.

    Anyhoo, this is great news.

  • monkie_king #7 4 years ago

    I don't think there's a conspiracy over Butcher Bay - quite a few of the more technically advanced Xbox games can't run under the BC emulation (Rallisport Challenge 2 and Stranger's Wrath spring to mind, also Kung Fu Chaos). Pity MS seems to have abandoned any work on BC, though.

  • Redeye #8 4 years ago

    Heh, what are the odds Ghostbusters ends up on the EA roster?

  • ExplodingClown #9 4 years ago

    Were'nt Terminal Reality making the Ghostbusters game? Wish they'd make Nocturne 2.

  • the_mtfr #10 4 years ago

    @ExplodingClown

    Maybe another one, for more than a year I've known ZootFly is at Ghostbusters.

    Can't wait for this to happen, but I'm can't-wait-ing even more for Brütal Legend. I've seen the Tenacious D movie recently :D

  • AHiFi #11 4 years ago

    ExplodingClown - Correct.

    the_mtfr - That was just a concept by Zootfly, no?