Report: Atari Withdraws From E3

Atari will be skipping out on this year's return of the large format E3, Joystiq reports. A company spokesperson told the gaming weblog that Atari is instead currently concentrating on "other selling and marketing initiatives" for upcoming games such as Ghostbusters and Champions Online, as well as unannounced games. E3 is scheduled to take place June 2-4 this year at the Los Angeles Convention Center. According to the website for the Entertainment Software Association, the trade group that runs E3, Atari already had a booth reserved at the event. Atari will reportedly still be attending E3, although not as an exhibitor. A wide array of other game companies, from large to small, are still slated to exhibit at E3. E3 2009 marks the return of the event to L.A. In 2007 and 2008, the smaller-scale "E3 Media and Business Summit" limited attendance to just a few thousand select people in Santa Monica, a stark contrast to this year, when the ESA expects to attract 40,000 attendees. Recently, Atari passed publishing rights for Ghostbusters on to Sony for PAL territories. Other versions of the game have yet to find a publisher in those regions, although Atari is still slated to publish all versions in North America. The game is scheduled to release in June. In March, Atari owner Infogrames also announced that it would sell its stake in its distribution business to Namco Bandai, as Atari moves away from physical publishing toward an online business model.