In a surprise move, Atari has announced that they will be pulling the plug on their planned appearance at E3 this time around. Instead, the company will focus on other sales and marketing initiatives for their upcoming titles.

Atari is planning to drop Ghostbusters and Champions Online, in addition to a couple of yet unannounced titles. The decision to skip E3 is a bit puzzling at best, due to the fact that both Ghostbusters and Champions Online have been getting some very good press prior to release.

Our sources tell us that Atari already had a booth reserved and does still plan to attend. However, they will not be attending as an exhibitor. Whispers suggest that the move could be more of a cost cutting decision than anything else in an effort to bring expenses in line and have more money available to market Ghostbusters as well as Champions Online.

The early buzz surrounding the new Ghostbusters title has been very positive, but it remains to be seen if it will be a title that will capture gamers’ attention and lead to big sales. As we told you previously, Atari has already put a deal in place with Sony to handle the sales and marketing of the title in the PAL territories, while Atari still plans to handle the publishing, distribution and marketing of the title in North America. According to various reports, the company is looking for partners for the game in other parts of the world that are not covered in the Sony deal.

We have also heard rumblings that the move to pull out of E3 could also be related to the decision to sell off a large stake of its distribution business to Namco Bandai, while Atari owner Infogrames moves to cultivate an online business model.