The game was revealed at E3 2003, with a playable demo being a mostly complete version of the game, albeit with a few levels missing. "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" was released in North America on 21 October 2003, in Europe on 21 November 2003 and in Japan on 29 April 2004, becoming Rare's first game to be released under Microsoft. It was later re-released as an Xbox Originals game for the Xbox 360 on 16 February 2009, later being removed from the store on 16 June 2015. At Microsoft's E3 2015 press conference, "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" was announced as one of the thirty titles included in the "Rare Replay" compilation title. The game was remastered to run natively on the Xbox One, increasing its resolution and framerate relative to the original Xbox release. Grabbed by the Ghoulies was one of the first original Xbox games to be compatible with Xbox One via backwards compatibility.