Toward the end of October, we reported that Atari had made a deal with Universal, giving them rights to the Riddick video game franchise.  Included in the article were rumors that Atari would be taking over Ghostbusters as well.

As it turns out, those rumors have been confirmed, and Terminal Reality's Ghostbusters: The Video Game is in Atari's hands now.  It was one of four games originally to be published by Vivendi Games label Sierra; The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, and Brütal Legend make up the remaining three and were all picked up by various publishers.

Following the merger with Activision, those four titles were dropped, and Activision CEO Bobby Kotick explained why that is:

"With respect to the franchises that don’t have the potential to be exploited every year across every platform, with clear sequel potential that can meet our objectives of, over time, becoming $100 million-plus franchises, that’s a strategy that has worked very well for us.

It’s something that we have been very disciplined about. So, while there are lots of promise for a lot of these products that we had in the portfolio, I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus -- especially given the increase in development expenditures on the products that have those attributes and characteristics that we know if we release today, we’ll be working on 10 years from now."

At least Kotick was polite about it, though Atari isn't really in a position to be choosey right at the moment.  Nevertheless, Atari president Phil Harrison made a positive remark about his company's recent acquisition:

"Ghostbusters: The Video Game is a fantastic addition to Atari’s global line-up in 2009.  The title has built considerable anticipation and excitement among game fans for its high quality action and all-out mayhem. There’s no more thrilling ghostbusting experience to be had, short of building your own proton pack."

Predictions say the game will be released next year to coincide with the Ghostbusters movie's 25th anniversary.