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E3 has been much smaller and focused since it became invite-only last year, but things are about to shrink even more, as Kotaku, Joystiq, and Gamespot have all made varying reports that several publishers have decided not to attend this year's show.

Kotaku kicked things off by reporting that Vivendi, Activision, Her Interactive, NCSoft, and id Software are pulling out of E3 this year. Soon after, Gamespot reported that id is attending and that Foundation 9 is joining the list of absent publishers. However, they have since declared id's status to be "unclear." Also, Joystiq reported that RPG behemoth Atlus has dropped out as well.

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Sierra has published new screenshots of Ghostbusters for the PS2, Wii, DS, PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. The game takes place after the events of the Ghostbuster II movie and is scheduled for a 2008 release.

Hit the link to view more images.

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Following the news of the Activision Blizzard merger, the company has confirmed that, in fact, Call of Duty 5 and Guitar Hero IV are both in development. There are no other details for these upcoming titles at this time.

In addition, other titles in the works include a new James Bond, Tony Hawk, new Dreamworks and Marvel titles and a racing title from Bizarre Creations.

Those who wish to visit the official site can do so here.

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Activision and Vivendi Game have both announced today that they will be merging to form a new company, Activision Blizzard.

Activision is one of the largest publishers of video games, owning the Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and Tony Hawk licenses. Vivendi Gamess games is one of the smaller, less awesome publishers but owned by Vivendi Universal, a gigantic media company. Vivendi Games owns Blizzard, developer and creator of such cash-factories as World of Warcraft, Warcraft, Starcraft, and has nothing to do with Witchcraft. Vivendi Games also currently owns the rights to not-as-good-as-they-used-to-be Crash Bandicoot and Spyro.

After looking over the press release (linked in PDF format), it appears that this isn't exactly a straight merger.

Activision isn't changing its name to Activision Blizzard.
Quoth the press release: "Under the terms of the agreement, Vivendi Games will be merged with a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision."

Activision Blizzard will be a new company, owned by Activision. They'll be spending $4 billion to buy up 145.6 million of their own shares, using $1.7 billion that Vivendi Games brings to the table from its own shares.

If I've decoded this correctly, I'd say that Activision is actually absorbing Vivendi, and mainly to obtain ownership of Blizzard. Now, instead of Blizzard games being published by Vivendi, they'll be published by "Activision Blizzard." Vivendi Games will probably disappear, though the name and property will be owned by Activision (not by Vivendi Universal, interestingly)

I suppose it's not technically a buyout, if anything I'd say the situation was that Vivendi running out of money but they had the valuable Blizzard crew, so they worked it out so Activision could acquire Blizzard by first taking over Vivendi Games. Business is confusing. Were this a Japanese business transaction, however, it would be infinitely more confusing.

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Following the news of the Ghostbuster game's multiplayer mode, more information has been gathered regarding the game's plot and environments.

As reported by Gamespot, the game will take place two years after the events of the Ghostbusters 2 movie. The single player mode will feature at least ten levels which includes a haunted graveyard, library cellar, multiplayer coop mode and a variety of minigames.

Regarding the characters, Mr.Stay-Puft and the mysterious librarian from the first Ghostbusters movie will be making a cameo appearance in the game. The title is set for a 2008 release.

 

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Shortly after Vivendi's announcement that Ghostbusters is being developed for next-gen consoles, new information has surfaced regarding the game's multiplayer mode for the PS2 and Wii versions.

As reported by CVG, the Ghosts vs. Busters multiplayer mode will feature two teams: one as the original team armed with proton packs and suits charged with hunting down the other team of wandering ghosts. In addition, ghost-catching modes will pit players against each other in a timed contest to capture as many ghosts as possible.

The main developer, Terminal Reality, has not provided any details concerning the PS3 and Xbox 360 cooperative play but has commented that it's "under consideration."

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Following the official announcement of Vivendi's Ghostbusters title being developed for next-generation consoles, the company has released some images and a very quick teaser trailer of the title. The game's official site has also gone live.

Here's the run down on the plot, excerpted from the site:


The teaser trailer and screenshots are provided at the jump.

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In some interesting nostalgic news of the morning, Variety and other sources have reported that Vivendi Games is working with Sony Pictures to bring the Ghostbusters franchise to the videogame arena.

The first title currently being developed by Sierra is set after the events in Ghostbusters II and will launch in fall 2008. All four Ghostbusters - Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Harold Ramis - will be doing voicework for the title and Aykroyd and Ramis will be producing the storyline.

The deal follows Vivendi's success with Scarface: The World is Yours. Here's an excerpt:

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