Atari has today officially announced the follow-up to 2006/2007’s Test Drive Unlimited in the form of Test Drive Unlimited 2, which is expected to release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in the ‘Fall’ of this year.

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Capcom has announced that the publisher’s chief operating officer for North America and Europe, Mark Beaumont, has suddenly passed away this morning.

Beaumont was a 28-year veteran of the videogame publishing industry, and began his career at Atari in 1982, before moving on to Activision in 1983, where he remained for five years, becoming the general manager of the company’s Activision Entertainment brand.

During his career, Beaumont also served in executive vice president roles at Time Warner Interactive, as well as taking up stints at developers and publishers such as Mindscape, Data East and Psygnosis, before becoming a Senior Vice President at Midway in 1999 in the company’s publishing department.

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It seems Xbox 360, PC, Wii and DS owners in Europe will have to wait just a little longer to get their Ghostbusters fix, after Atari has unfortunately pushed the release date of Ghostbusters: The Video Game for those consoles back to November 6th in the region, after it was expected to release in late October.

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Atari recently posted results for the first quarter of their financial year 2010, with improved revenues on the back of solid Ghostbusters: The Video Game and Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena sales.

First quarter revenues rose by 30 percent (as compared to the same period last year) to $77.78 million, as the US side of the business accounted for 83.5 percent of total revenues during the quarter. Profit information was not released.

An impressive 37 percent of Atari’s global revenues came from Xbox 360 titles, while 24.6 percent came from PS3 games and 12.1 percent from Wii titles, with additional platforms making up the rest of the pie.

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It’s been revealed that Phil Harrison, the friendly giant who left his role at Sony as the head of their Worldwide Studios to take on the job of President at Infogrames (Atari’s parent company), has now been removed from that role at Atari to another, as a statement by Atari says:

“Because of a shift of business operations to the US, Phil Harrison will move from the role of President to that of non-executive Director of the Group. As all Board members, he will continue to assist, support and guide the Company’s strategy.”

That ‘non-executive’ part of Harrison’s new title sounds a little… impotent, whereas before, especially at Sony, Harrison seemed like a very hands-on ‘executor,’ if you will, of strategies and ideas, which seemed like his desired direction and ability at Atari as well.

No replacement, if there is one (or ever could be for Phil’s big shoes), has been announced.

In a report posted on game trade site MCV, it seems as though Atari will no longer be a European brand, but instead focus on US operations, while Japanese megalith Namco Bandai will buy out Atari’s current operations in Europe, rebranded as Distribution Partners.

In March of last year, Namco Bandai bought a 34% stake in Atari Europe, and is expected to complete the acquisition of the business from Atari’s parent company, Infogrames, next month.

A new business, Distribution Partners, will become home for Atari Europe’s sales and marketing staff, while seeing an increase in staff in order to better solidify their position in Europe.

Distribution Partners is expected to handle Namco Bandai’s product sales in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asia, and will be headed up by John Galloway, previously of Take Two, THQ and EA. Distribution Partners will also handle Atari-produced titles outside of the US until 2014, which includes Ghostbusters: The Video Game, on non-Sony platforms, in June. Atari’s European marketing boss, David Miller said:

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Atari have recently released the debut trailer for the multiplayer component of Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and it sure looks insane! Watch below:

Atari have confirmed that they won’t be exhibiting games at this year’s E3 due to their busy marketing schedule over the month of June, but representatives from Atari will still be in attendance at the show. A company spokesperson said:

“Atari has made the proactive decision to attend but not exhibit at this year’s E3 event. Although we feel E3 benefits the entire games business, we are very focused around other selling and marketing initiatives for our upcoming Ghostbusters, Champions Online and other to be announced titles.”

Atari remain members of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the annual organisers of E3, so there’s seemingly no bad blood between Atari and the ESA which would lead to the publisher pulling out of the show.

Source: Kotaku

Namco Bandai Games have announced that, in conjunction with Atari, they will be bringing the highly rated Xbox 360 RPG, Tales of Vesperia, to Europe and PAL regions in June.

The first high-definition entry to the admired RPG series sees players entering the world of Terca Lumireis, a world of transition and unease, as a shaky truce has been formed between the people of the guilds, and the Empire, the government of the land and sole providers of protection and technology known as ‘blastia.’

Taking on the role of Imperial Knight Yuri Lowell, it is your job to further investigate the relationship between the government, its people and blastia, setting out on an adventure outside of the city walls and the safety they provide.

Tales of Vesperia features a real-time battle system allowing players to chain their attacks together and create on-the-fly combos, all the while giving commands to their party members to create second-to-second battle strategies.

Look forward to Tales of Vesperia coming to European and PAL territories in June.

Atari has announced that The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena has gone gold.

The game has been developed by Starbreeze Studios in conjunction with Vin Diesel’s Tigon Studios and Universal Studios. It features a new 11 hour chapter in the Riddick saga as well as six online multiplayer game modes including Pitch Black mode. The disc also includes a HD remastering of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.

Assault on Dark Athena will be available on the Xbox 360 and PS3 on the 7th of April in the US and worldwide on the 24th of April. Luckily a demo of the game is available on Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store to keep us entertained until then.

Head over to our previous coverage to check out the latest screens and trailers for the game.

We all know the Hoff, we all love the Hoff, but we have never seen him looking like this before! Check out his caricatured boxer in Ready 2 Rumble Revolution where he goes by the codename of Dewie Streudel.

Here are some interesting facts you may not have known about Streduel: his training regime involves slow motion jogging; his signature move is the shark attack; and he goes nowhere without his lucky charm, a lifeguard whistle. Seriously?

Hilarious D, Red Dermato and Marcus D Roxbury are also featured in the game, bearing a striking resemblance to Jack Black, Shaun White and Will Ferrell. But please remember that this game is a work of parody and is not endorsed by the celebrities…except the Hoff of course!

Check out this video of David Hasselhoff playing Ready 2 Rumble Revolution against Jimmy Kimmel. You might also learn a few fascinating details about the Hoff such as where the nickname came from, what car he drives and even a little bit about his current love interest.

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The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena will be released for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on the 24th of April in Europe and South Africa. It will arrive in the US on the 7th of April.

The game features the new full-length ‘Assault on Dark Athena’ campaign, an HD remake of ‘Escape from Butcher Bay’ as well as multiplayer options including the Pitch Black mode.

A playable demo for the game will land on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network this March.

For more information head over to the game’s official website or check out our previous coverage.

New screens after the jump.

It has been a long time coming, but The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena has finally received a release day. In North America, the M-for-Mature-rated action game will ship for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on April 7.

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Late last week, rumours began to swirl regarding the supposed release date of the upcoming Ghostbusters: The Video Game, after it was announced that the special edition, 25th anniversary re-releases of the movies would be launched on June 16th, alongside the game. Internet logic dictated that the game must be releasing on the same date as the movies.

Well, it appears as though internet logic has proved correct this time, as Ghostbusters: The Video Game will indeed be releasing on June 16th in North America and June 19th in Europe. Being published by Atari (saved from publishing hell after it was dropped by Activision Blizzard) and in development at Terminal Reality and Redfly, Ghostbusters: The Video Game is essentially the third instalment in the story of the Ghostbusters world, being written and voiced by the original movie cast and taking place directly after events in the second movie.

For a bunch of screenshots and the latest trailer from Atari’s game day last year, head on over here.

In Take-Two’s earnings call yesterday, president Ben Feder announced that Take-Two will no longer be publishing the upcoming massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) Champions Online, currently in development at Cryptic Studios.

This is a result of Cryptic Studios’ acquisition by Atari. Announced last week, Atari’s ownership of Cryptic obviously puts a different spin on things, making it difficult for Take-Two to continue on with publishing duties for the game. Feder cleared up the confusion in the earnings call by simply saying:

“One change to note in our 2009 pipeline as a result of Atari’s recent acquisition of Cryptic Studios, we no longer intend to publish the MMO game Champions Online.”

It is now assumed that Atari will continue the task of publishing Champions Online, due out next year on PC and Xbox 360.

It’s being reported over on Game Industry.biz that Atari have made a move for massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) developer, Cryptic Studios.

Cryptic Studios (City of Heroes and City of Villains) is currently developing three titles to be released over the next three years, two of which are known - Champions Online, as well the Star Trek MMOG, Star Trek Online, slated for releases in 2009 and 2010 respectively. The third game is unknown at this time, but hopefully it follows the same naming conventions as the first two. Cryptic’s technology will also power some of Atari’s upcoming games and online initiatives.

The acquisition of Cryptic Studios by Atari is further evidence of Atari’s aggressive and positive moves in the market lately, as well as a sign of their resurgence as a game publisher to be reckoned with.