Mergers (or take overs) should be the word on peoples lips coming into E3 in a couple of weeks, With Apple already digging it's claws into EA, Namco Bandai want a piece of the pie as well. That pie seems to taste like Atari's European publishing and marketing division which includes none other than this man. So when it was announced that Ghostbusters would be exclusive to PS3, PS2 and PSP in PAL territories, we all thought it was fishy for numerous reasns. Why is Sony throwing money at a game at all? And why are they throwing it at Ghostbusters in particular, it is not going to be a system seller. We all thought Sony were just being mean.
This may not be the case (although it is still mean).
MCV reports that Namco Bandai are in the process of buying out the remaing 66% of Atari Europe that they don't own as yet. This basically spells the death of Atari in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It also means the birth of Namco Bandai (or Distribution Partners as they will be officially known) in these regions.
So to the Sony deal at hand. All it appears to be at this time was a way of getting Ghostbusters onto shelves on time in these affected regions while Namco Bandai completes its aquistion of Atari in Europe. Atari in the USA is still going to operate normally.
But the question still remains with Distribution Partners set to handle future Atari publications till 2014, Is Ghostbusters a timed or fully fledged exclusive for Sony in PAL territories?
At the end of the day it seems that Ghostbusters called for helped and Sony answered.
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