The Sony event in Sydney is still rolling on but in espionage-like movements that would put Sam Fisher to shame, our Gameplayer staff have managed to get more breaking news through to us beyond the exciting stuff we reported earlier. This particular announcement was left until the end, and with good reason; it’s huge.

According to our guys on the frontline, Sony has made an agreement with Atari to help publish and distribute the soon to be released Ghostbusters: The Video Game. While this news may not initially come across as particularly groundbreaking, it’s the implications of the late announcement that are potentially extreme.

For starters, Ghostbusters is now confirmed as, at the very least, a timed exclusive for all three PlayStation formats (with the PSP to appear later than the console versions). At its most extreme, however, the news could mean that Ghostbusters may never appear on Xbox 360, Wii, DS and the PC. Atari are free to make that call at a later date, if initial reports are to be believed.

source open me

"When we originally approached Sierra, we were pitching them an entirely different game. They had just done a test of iconic properties, and they found that the Ghostbusters logo was the second most recognized logo in the world, next to Coca-Cola. It turned out that Ghostbusters is pretty much universally loved around the world"

I hope it's a good game, there's good potential (I loved the original movie as a kid and still do), I don't really like these timed exclusive approaches. But I can understand Sony having to do something to counter Microsoft's practices. I assume the deal is based on free marketing or something like that, as Sony said they won't bribe for exclusivity.

I feel Wii users have somewhat become victim to this whole 360 vs PS3 battle. Oh well, maybe the devs will invest more time to polish.

Phil Harrison. Connect the dots people.

This IS pretty surprising. It sucks for PAL owners, but some folks have been asking Sony to toss some money around, and now they have. Yay?

To be completely honest, I sort of wish this had happened in N.A. instead, because June (and May) are already filled with too damn many games as it is, and I'd be okay if one or two of them got bumped (with one very important exception...).

Fine by me if it comes to Wii later. June is insanely crowded, so my choice of games just got a little less nerve-wracking.

its releasing multiplat in NA but exclusive on playstation in PAL

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/05/sony-will-publish-ghostbusters-game-in-europe/

Sony Computer Entertainment will publish Atari’s upcoming Ghostbusters videogames in Europe, delaying the Xbox 360, Wii, and Nintendo DS versions, Atari said Wednesday.

On June 19, Sony will publish the game for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 in Europe and other PAL territories. A PSP version will follow in the fall.

Atari said that its North American launch plans will not change: The games will be released on 360, PS3, PS2, DS, PC, and Wii here on June 16, alongside the release of the classic film on Blu-ray.

In 2008, Ghostbusters developer Terminal Reality told MTV that PlayStation 3 was the lead development platform for the next-gen game.

Earlier that year, Sony’s head of software development Phil Harrison left the company to head up Atari.

Atari did not say whether the other versions of the game would eventually be released in Europe. (Update: Atari told Wired.com that it will publish the non-Sony SKUs in Europe in the fall.)

Image courtesy Atari

-----

Times exclusive -- PAL regions only.
Basically, help out Phil Harrison with a bit of cash while hurting Microsoft in Europe.

And the best news is that it is only a few months delay.

Mike from Morgantown

And the best news for me is that I live in NTSC land.

So real question is *how* much later will it come to other consoles. I would still consider the Wii version as the best and would wait for it even if I had a PS3. Plus, June will be full of a few other games anyways.

What?

SONY gave out some more money?

Im thinking that PS3 is starting to make profit

sorry, this is very boring news. i don't care about ghostbusters the game. i don't live in europe. also, sony probably needed to pay all sorts of cash for this game to be timed exclusive. what a waste, one reason i don't like microsoft is for their lame attempt to gobble up so many games as time exclusive tittles. i hope sony doesn't begin this with more tittles.