Remember those awkward lanyards at Penny Arcade Expo advertising "Ghostbusters: the Game," which currently has no publisher or release date after Activision passed on it following the merger with Vivendi?

I was interviewing Penny Arcade business chief Robert Khoo for a story about PAX running this weekend (look for it!) and he noted that Vivendi label Sierra signed up to sponsor the lanyards all the way back in January and sent them, with the Ghostbusters logo, back in June. But it wasn't until two weeks before the show (probably right after ActiBlizzard made its fateful announcement) that Sierra pulled out of displaying "Ghostbuster" (and, I assume, other games, many of which are now cancelled). Awkward!

As Khoo himself said, "We didn't have much of a choice as finding an alternate lanyard provider, so we just ran with it." Of course, one publisher or another is going to put the game out in 2009, according to licensor Sony Pictures, so as Khoo added, "SOMEONE out there is benefiting from it!" Just not the folks who actually paid for it.