Executive producer Brendan Goss revealed in an interview with Gamereactor that the developer was contacted by Sigourney Weaver (presumably her agent) after it was announced that Bill Murray would be returning as Peter Venkman in the game about reprising her role as Dana Barrett. At that late stage of production there was no chance of including her character as she had initially turned down an offer to be in the game.
When a publisher drops a game, particularly a game late in development, it puts developers into a bind. They'll end up moving onto other projects while searching for someone - anyone - to come in and publish their product. Sometimes the new publisher just ends up dumping the game in stores with zero marketing. However, the upcoming multi-platform Ghostbusters game seems to have benefited from being dumped by their original publisher.
Speaking to videogaming247, Terminal Reality chief Mark Randel confirmed the news that Ghostbusters: The videogame will release in June and declared it will be a "huge Ghostbusters week!"
Well, if you're a fan of the movie, like me, you may already know that Ghostbusters is more about jokes then scares, but there also was a creepy side to it. I mean that's what made Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters. And what should make the game any different?
Ghostbusters has always taken a somewhat humorous approach to ghosts and the horror genre, but this could be changing with Ghostbusters: The Video Game, according to one of the game's developers. And, it turns out, that helps explain why the game won't see store shelves until June 2008.
"The company today announced its lineup of games due this coming spring 2009. There are a variety of console and handheld titles on the menu, suggesting that Atari will retain a broad publishing focus going forward. We are particularly interested to see how The Chronicles of Riddick and Ghostbusters turn out, after Atari snapped these franchises up in the fallout of the Vivendi-Activision merger. "
Mcvuk writes, "Resurgent publishing force Atari has made a sack full of announcements at a UK press gathering today, chief of which is the predicted release date for its highly anticipated Ghostbusters title.
Ghostbusters; The Video Game, based on the smash hit motion picture franchise, also reunites original cast members to recapture the unique blend of humour and fright that established Ghostbusters as a pop culture sensation.