The Long and Winding Tale of Ghostbusters: The Game [Archive]

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DoctorFinger

01-20-2009, 07:34 AM

Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/ghostbusters-history.ars) digs deep to uncover the long and winding road behind the upcoming Ghostbusters: The Video Game.

If you remember back to early 2007, the gaming community was pleasantly surprised when Slovenian developer Zootfly unleashed a flurry of footage based on the Ghostbusters game they had been working on. Fans took a shine to the footage, and were hoping that some new 'Bustin was on the way. One small problem: Zootfly didn't have the rights to the game, and were in no way authorized to be working on a Ghostbusters title. In fact at that very moment Terminal Reality (Bloodrayne, Nocturne) were already working on a Ghostbusters game, and had been for seven months.
But, [Terminal Reality studio director John] O'Keefe did reveal that Zootfly's leaked footage was still advantageous to Terminal Reality, confirming Randal's earlier comments. "The video did help us... in that it confirmed to Vivendi’s upper management how interested people were in a Ghostbusters game. While a number of people at Vivendi, namely our EP’s John Melchior and Pete Wanat were confident in the popular appeal Ghostbusters has maintained over the years, some others there needed more convincingIt's one of the more bizarre stories to come out of the industry in a long time. Unfortunately things do not seem to have gone that well for Zootfly since their footage touched off a mini firestorm. They had been working on a Prison Break title for publisher Brash Entertainment, but their recent closure (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=2223) has left Zootfly out nearly three-quarters of a million dollars. The game they announced as in development alongside Ghostbusters, TimeO has not been heard from in two years, and it's fate is unknown.

Source - Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/ghostbusters-history.ars).

Wilkz07

01-20-2009, 08:55 AM

Can't wait for the game to come out!

Morale of the story is - always get permission.

Telefrog

01-20-2009, 09:04 AM

Can't wait for the game to come out!

Morale of the story is - always get permission.

In the Army it was always, "it's easier to apologize than to ask for permission" when you dealt with officers.

Admiral Ackbar

01-20-2009, 06:44 PM

Adam Blue

01-20-2009, 09:09 PM

That seriously has to be the biggest screw up a company can possibly make. I could just see the meeting:
"Hey let's make a Ghostbusters game!"
"Great idea! You think we need to get any license figured out?"
"Hahahaha!"

(-.75 million)

Nah, it was done on purpose. The video should have got the license holders on board, but then they decided just to do it themselves to possibly get more cash. This GB game won't be that good...at least, not as good as what these Zootfly guys were willing to accomplish. Moral of the story, if you want something done right, you can't necessarily do it yourself.

DoctorFinger

01-20-2009, 09:11 PM

Nah, it was done on purpose. The video should have got the license holders on board, but then they decided just to do it themselves to possibly get more cash. This GB game won't be that good...at least, not as good as what these Zootfly guys were willing to accomplish. Moral of the story, if you want something done right, you can't necessarily do it yourself.
If you believe the article Terminal Reality had been working on the game for 7 months when those videos hit the net.

Widgetcraft

01-21-2009, 01:04 AM

Ugh... I didn't realize that the actual Ghostbusters game was being made by fucking Terminal Reality. There goes any hope of this shit being playable, never mind enjoyable.

EDIT: Just looked the company up on GameFAQs; turns out, I have these dumbshits to thank for the horrible Metal Slug Anthology Wii port that didn't support the Classic Controller. They're even more incompetent than I remembered.

Just so we are clear here, the best thing that these idiots have ever put together was a Descent knock off called Terminal Velocity. Second to that would be the first two Bloodrayne games, which aren't much to brag about. Nocturne and the Blair Witch games that are based on it are basically unplayable; you'll pray for Silent Hill or Resident Evil tank controls when you check those games out. Outside of that shit, you have a ton of shovelware like Aeon Flux (based on the movie), Monster Truck Madness, and various other D-rated driving games.