Atari picks up Riddick, Ghostbusters titles

Atari has picked up the rights to developer Starbreeze Studio's The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, for release in spring 2009.

And according to a report by Variety, the publisher has also grabbed Ghostbusters for release in the summer, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the movie's release.

"It's very exciting to have Assault on Dark Athena as part of Atari's 2009 publishing line-up," said Phil Harrison, president of Infogrames, parent company of Atari.

"The first game in the series was a landmark in action gaming and the outstanding team at Starbreeze are creating a feature-packed follow-up which will delight fans and new players alike."

Although the Ghostbusters deal has not been made official, Variety claims that Atari has paid a flat fee to Activision Blizzard for both games to cover a portion of the development costs.

It is also believed that Atari now has the rights to produce future games based on the IP.

Since the company has been rebooted with former-EA exec David Gardner and ex-Sony studios boss Phil Harrison, Atari has stated that its future focus will be in the online space. Both Riddick and Ghostbusters titles could be a sign that the publisher still sees value in releases for the more traditional games console market.