There was a lot of consternation a couple days ago over the announcement that games like Ghostbusters and Brutal Legend had been dropped from the Activision publishing calendar, but it’s looking like the whole thing is turning out to be much ado about nothing. We’ve already heard that Ghostbusters is doing fine, and now it looks like Brutal Legend was never in danger of fading out of existence either.

Turns out that Double Fine, the studio developing the game, owns the rights to Brutal Legend anyway, so they’re free to take it wherever they want without fear of legal wrangling. Variety is reporting that the company is very close to inking a new deal with a different publisher, and will only comment that this new party may not be a "traditional" player and that the arrangement could be somewhat "unique." Very vague and mysterious, but also very welcome to hear the title will make its debut after all.

The only downside to all this is that with a new publishing deal being worked out it is unlikely that the game will make its original release date. The Variety article speculates that Brutal Legend will likely drop back to early 2009, but the disruptions should be minimal. In any case, those who are fans of heavy metal, Jack Black, and Tim Shafer should be happy to hear that things are still on track. The thought of this game not coming out broke my black little heart, but now it’s been raggedly stitched back together.