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Atari fiscal Q3 results indicate revival for embattled publisher
Atari may not have published a ton of games in 2009, but that doesn't mean the company hasn't been picking up the bottom line. In a press release that reads like the exact opposite of those we saw from the company just a few years ago, CEO Jeff Lapin celebrates the €92.5 million ($126.25 million) in revenue earned in the nine months ending December 31, saying "the company has now strengthened its equity and is in a position to work on an expanded publishing plan." In so many words, Lapin's suggesting that Atari is financially bouncing back and maybe even gearing up to (dare we say it?) make more games. The company cites sales of Ghostbusters, Chronicles of Riddick, Backyard Football, and Champions Online for bolstering revenues in fiscal Q3 and looks forward to a better 2010. The recent release of Star Trek Online certainly doesn't seem to be hurting his confidence in that department. Lapin says that he's "very enthusiastic about the launch" of the "promising MMO game." But things aren't all gumdrops and money hats -- the Q3 revenues were still down by 1.9% year-over-year. We won't find out the full year's earnings until late May, but for now we'll comfort ourselves with the knowledge that the publisher's next title, Project Runway, is coming in a few short weeks. Finally! Source (PDF) - Atari announces 9-month revenues for FY 2009/2010; [via Big Download]
Google Zeitgeist 2009 shows year's top game searches
We would never call you out on your love for whatever crappy thing it is that you love but, guys, you're using Google wrong. Its recent Zeitgeist 2009 report shows what the most popular gaming term searches of this year have been and the results are pretty surprising.At the top spot is Ghostbusters, which is fine by us -- it was a pretty big deal when it was announced and it sold a lot of copies, so naturally folks were interested. But, as we delve deeper into the top 10, the search terms become a bit more interesting. The next three terms -- "ufc" "saw" and "bakugan" -- really threw us for a loop. Saw? Really? Bakugan? What is that, a gun that uses evil Japanese spirits for ammo? Actually, that sounds pretty cool.Further into the list, we see that Batman: Arkham Asylum managed to put a batarang in the fifth spot, much lower than we'd like, but we can live with that -- however, coming in at the sixth spot is Twilight. Guys! Vampires. Do. Not. Sparkle. Seventh was FIFA 2010, followed by Modern Warfare in eighth. The ninth spot belonged to Transformers 2, which we must admit has one of this year's best performances by a human male, so that seems okay. Finally, Resident Evil 5 rounded out the list in last place.
Steam Deals Day Three: Resident Evil 5, Left 4 Dead, Borderlands on sale
To quote the immortal words of the musical revolutionaries known as Widelife, "all things just keep getting better!" For the purpose of this post, "all things" include Steam's post-Thanksgiving deals, which seem to have hit critical value mass today. Resident Evil 5 for $24.99? Borderlands for $33.49? Ghostbusters for $9.99? Left 4 Dead: Game of the Year Edition for $7.49? Daddy like. Once again, if you don't like the games which have had their prices temporarily torn in twain, tune in tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. PST for the next batch of deals.
Atari announces Ghostbusters for PSP, we're left speechless
From the day Atari first announced it would be doing a new video game installment in the Ghostbusters franchise to the day said installment was released, we had to maintain a careful linguistic balancing act. We had to ration out quotes and references to the Ghostbusters films in our posts, working tirelessly not to exhaust our resources. We made it to the game's release by the skin of our teeth -- but earlier today, Atari did us the great discourtesy of announcing that the title is coming to PSP. We've just ... we've got nothing left. The debut trailer for the title is posted above. It looks like a fairly faithful recreation of the console versions, only, y'know, tinier. It's got a launch window of November, meaning you can look forward to a month of uncreative, reference-free posts from our end. Just make sure you don't ... cross the ... oh, forget it.
Non-Sony versions of Ghostbusters delayed in Europe
While North American Xbox 360 and Wii gamers should have mastered ghostbusting by now, European players were forced to put their talents on the shelf when the game was announced as a timed exclusive for Sony platforms. Sadly, European gamers will have to wait a little longer to capture a copies of Ghostbusters on Microsoft and Nintendo's platforms.CVG reports that Ghostbusters for the Xbox 360 and Wii has been delayed from October 23rd to November 6th. Of course, European Xbox 360 owners are more than welcome to import the game, since the Ghostbusters NTSC release uses no region protection.
Ghostbusters PS3 patch is close to 720p, but no cigar
We were moved -- genuinely moved! -- by Terminal Reality's efforts to improve the lackluster visual quality of the PS3 version of Ghostbusters with a recent patch. However, while the implementation of multi-sampling anti-aliasing and a slight bump of resolution make the PS3 title look prettier than its launch iteration, a recent Digital Foundry comparison came to a startling conclusion. Even post-patch, the game fails to deliver on its promise of 720p resolution or equality with the 360 version of Ghostbusters. The Eurogamer-hosted blog has a few enormous image comparisons for the pixel-counters among you. We're not experts on visual fidelity (What's an alias? Why must it be anti'ed?) but we do know that we are owed. Does one penny per missing pixel sound fair to you?
Delving into the iPhone's DCIM folder
Today, Dave Caolo discovered what happens when your iPhone camera rolls past picture number 99999 (or so). As he and other Apple users have found, a picture count that goes too high can lead to unforseen errors. Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria. Or a camera roll that doesn't acknowledge new photos. Snapped images are stored on your iPhone in your home folder. As user "mobile," that home folder is /var/mobile and the folder that stores your iTunes library, your voice memos, and your photos is /var/mobile/Media. Inside that media folder is a subfolder named DCIM. Read on for more details.
More pixels being patched into PS3 version of Ghostbusters
High-res HDMI captures: Ghostbusters (PS3) & Ghostbusters (Xbox 360) The PS3 version of Ghostbusters was largely criticized for its inferior performance compared to the Xbox 360 version. Developer Terminal Reality told Joystiq, "The PS3 version ... is softer due to the 'quincunx' antialiasing filter and the fact we render at about 75% the resolution of the 360 version." 25% fewer pixels? Unacceptable! Atari is promising to redress the differences between the two platforms with a new patch for the PS3 version which is supposedly available right now. According to the Atari press release, the patch will offer an "increase in resolution to match that of Xbox 360" while offering "numerous other localization fixes." Additionally, the Trophies for the game have been fixed. A glitch – caused when players from Europe and America played with each other – prevented the "Pay Day" and "Capture All Most Wanted Ghosts" Trophies (and subsequently, the game's mandatory Platinum) from unlocking properly. If bustin' ghosts with your international pals makes you feel good, it might be time to fire up Ghostbusters again.
Ghostbusters among GameStop's top five games this quarter
GameStop's quarterly earnings report for its second quarter (May through August 1) included a list of the five best-selling games for that time period. Four of the five – UFC 2009 Undisputed, Prototype, Fight Night Round 4, and NCAA Football 2010 – are safe bets; however, the last game on that list is a surprise: Ghostbusters. Atari's movie adaptation was successful, but its no-show on the last two month's NPD charts suggested it wasn't selling that well. In fact, the NPD tells us that across all six platforms, it has sold just 560,000 copies in North America. The best-selling version, in case you were curious, was the Xbox 360 release, at 225,000. We're contacting Atari about the discrepancy between the NPD numbers and Atari's announced one million sales, but its inclusion on GameStop's top seller list seems to imply that Atari's number is closer to the truth. Which would mean that Ghostbusters is something of a stealth hit!
Over one million new Ghostbusters recruits in North America
Since its June 16 release, Ghostbusters: The Video Game has managed to sell over one million copies in North America across all platforms. That's a pretty big deal, doubly so for Atari, a company in dire need of some success. We can't imagine what kind of hot water the company would be in if it couldn't recoup some of that $15 - $20 million it cost to develop the game.
Non-Sony Ghostbusters releases dated in Europe
Namco Bandai partners has announced that Ghostbusters will officially arrive on European Wii, DS and Xbox 360 consoles (and PCs) on October 23, according to VideoGamer.com. Thus far, the game has only been officially available for the PS3 and PS2 thanks to its initial European publisher, Sony. That said, the North American Xbox 360 version is reportedly not region-locked, allowing European gamers to import the title. Still, for Nintendo and Xbox players longing for what Play Magazine calls the "best damn Ghostbusters game [they've] ever seen" (as opposed to the vastly superior version we were hoping for), the wait is going to be just a bit longer.
Ghostbusters cost $15-20 million, devs would love to revisit franchise
Ghostbusters: The Video Game has allegedly sold over one million copies -- after costing $15-20 million to produce. The figures were revealed in a feature about developer Terminal Reality in the Star-Telegram of Texas. Although the price tag may seem high, it's not unusual for next-gen development. Remember, Ken Levine revealed BioShock cost about $15 million in fancy 2007 dollars. Terminal Reality's co-founder, Mark Randel, says he's heard the game's success has sparked interest in a third movie and, if that happens, he'd love for the company to handle development of the obligatory tie-in game. Let's see if we got this straight: the next game would be based on the third Ghostbusters movie, spawned by the success of the video game, created to tie in with the 25th anniversary of the first movie and, of course, the game was written as if it were the third movie. We got that right? %Gallery-21636% [Via Edge]
Ghostbusters LittleBigPlanet DLC coming this week
As the Japanese website suggested, the Ghostbusters LittleBigPlanet DLC will be available this week. As you can see above, the costumes have been fully revealed. They, along with the accompanying stickers, will be available on Thursday during the normal PSN update. The pack will cost you $5.99, or you can grab individual costumes for $1.99. They're great costumes, but we're still hankering for some more levels. It's been over six months since the MGS4 pack came out, you know.
Trophies: Ghostbusters
1 Platinum4 Gold5 Silver41 Bronze Difficulty: Moderate Online Trophies? Yes Time to Completion: 30 hoursDLC Trophies? No View Trophy List Read More About the Game %Gallery-21764%
Behold the LittleBigPlanet Ghostbusters DLC
And there they are. Via the Japanese LittleBigPlanet website, Sony has announced the LittleBigPlanet Ghostbusters DLC will be arriving in Japan next week, July 16. We're sure that no one really needs us to explain what will be available (it's all right up there, folks!), but here we go. Obviously, there is a Ghostbuster costume, along with a nifty trap item. There's also the "no ghosts' costume, the Staypuft Marshmallow Man costume and a Slimer hat.Each costume will be ¥200 (~$2.17), or players can nab the whole pack for ¥600 (~$6.50). Hopefully, Sony will bust out the details for other regions soon.[Via Siliconera]
Ghostbusters demo busts out on XBLM, PSN
Powering up the old 360 earlier today, we discovered that a Ghostbusters demo is available now on Xbox Live Marketplace. 360 owners can snag it right here. A few more checks with our super-top-secret UK contact confirmed that it's currently up on the European Playstation Store as well, meaning it's probably going to be available in North America after the weekly update later today.Go grab it and see if bustin' makes you feel good (or not).
Bustin' makes Sackboy wear a hood
Sony has finally revealed the answer to its LittleBigPlanet-related teaser question, "Who ya gonna call?" It turns out that it was the Ghostbusters. You are gonna call the Ghostbusters. The PlayStation Blog revealed a poster of a Sackboy wearing a white, hooded sweatshirt, which makes the LBP avatar resemble the ghost character from the Ghostbusters logo. While it doesn't answer all the questions we have (is this a downloadable costume? Is it free? Will there be Ghostbusters-related levels? Is the "no" symbol part of the costume?) the latest update on LittleBigPlanet suggests that some Ghostbusters-related content is on the way. We think.
We're ready to believe in Ghostbusters LittleBigPlanet costumes
No, Sony hasn't actually confirmed that Ghostbusters costumes are headed to LittleBigPlanet, but it has certainly hinted at the possibility. In a recent post on Playstation.Blog highlighting the new Sacktue of Liberty costume, the company dropped a not so subtle hint. Following the words "Future LittleBigPlanet DLC?" was the image to the right.Everyone and their dog knows who they're gonna call, and that's the Ghostbusters, so we're pretty sure that related costumes are on the way. Who knows, maybe they'll throw in a Slimer costume while they're at it.
'Ghostbusters' credits neglect artist crucial to game's style, dev responds
The artist who helped inspire the graphic style of the Wii and PS2 versions of Ghostbusters is angry for being omitted from the game's credits. According to a blog post by artist Dan Schoening, Sony and Sierra -- the original publisher of the game before it was picked up by Atari, following the Activision/Blizzard merger -- "100% guaranteed" he would be credited for his help in shaping the final look of the two versions of the recently released title. "For a game that in many ways is heavily influenced by my work, is it too much to ask for some acknowledgment?," Schoening wrote over the weekend.Yesterday, Red Fly Studio (the team behind the Wii/PS2 versions) CEO Dan Borth defended his company's position to Kombo. According to Borth, many people responsible for the game were omitted for the simple reason that there wasn't enough room. "After Sony, Vivendi, Atari all got their credits we had few spaces for ourselves and the others who worked on the games with us -- Zen Studios, War Drum studios, etc," Borth said. "Many people didn't make it and they worked many, many more hours on this game than Mr. Dan I can assure you. Does that make it right? No it doesn't. That's just how it played out.Borth admits that Schoening's name was omitted, but is adamant that it was not done intentionally. While not having "space" for the artist's credit is one of the saddest attempts at an excuse we've ever heard, Borth apologized to Schoening for the omission and thanked him for his work on the dev's official blog.[Via TrueGameHeadz. Image credit: Dan Schoening]
Ham blasting gives 'Kosher' Ghostbusters Achievement
Following the tenets of a religion is supposed to net you blessings and well-being, but that's just not tangible enough for us. Judaism has wised up, though. Those who follow its teachings in regards to keeping kosher – specifically by blasting a ham at a bar mitzvah in Ghostbusters – will be rewarded with an Achievement (and a Trophy, we presume) called "Kosher." It's only 10 points, but still, it's substantial. Man, why does all the best stuff happen to Jews? [Via What They Play]
