All Articles: Aliens: Colonial Marines

Randy Pitchford’s #AskRandy Q&A goes horribly wrong for the developer

gearbox-logoTwitter is a wonderful place. But sometimes, it can be a truly horrifying place where your worst nightmares come to life. That’s the position Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford found himself in Monday when he agreed to participate in an #AskRandy Q&A for Develop Brighton.

The intended goal was to get people to ask Pitchford questions about game development, which seems fair enough. The only problem was the timing. On Friday, Pitchford made a statement in regards to Sega’s agreement to a settlement concerning the lawsuit centered around Aliens: Colonial Marines. Sega and Gearbox were being sued by gamers who argued that Sega used false and unrepresentative demos, trailers, and screenshots to sell the game. Gearbox was included in the lawsuit as the developer of the game, though most of the work was reportedly outsourced to TimeGate Studios, and Gearbox was dropped from the suit similar this year.

Pitchford went on the attack in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, saying, “the legal system failed as it was being manipulated by what appeared to me to be, essentially, mafia-style extortion tactics.” He continued by stating the free market was the only judge for the game: “The market proved it was doing its job perfectly. The market is dispassionate — rewarding what it likes and punishing what it doesn’t. There is an objectivity and fairness in the open market’s harsh, firm justice.”

Of course, the whole lawsuit was about the game being sold on a bed of lying screenshots and trailers, and the infamous E3 2013 demo, but that’s neither here nor there.

Monday also marked the release of the latest episode of Jim Sterling’s Jimquisition show, “Aliens: Colonial Marines – Game Over, Randy,” in which he disagreed with Pitchford’s comments from Friday. This coincided with Develop Brighton’s launch for the hashtag campaign, and with the powder keg primed, angry fans were handed the match.

A sampling of the tweets Pitchford received can be found after the break. (more…)

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

PSN Today: The Last of Us, Tekken Revolution, Big Discounts, more

thelastofus-header

Has wall-to-wall E3 2013 news knocked you for a loop? How about a good old-fashioned PlayStation Store update to cleanse your palette. This week, PS3 and Vita owners will be able to download…

  • The Last of Us (available Friday), Naughty Dog’s ridiculously well-reviewed post-apocalyptic tale of a man named Joel and his teenage companion.
  • Tekken Revolution, a free-to-play version of everyone’s favorite fighting game. OK, second favorite. Um, third favorite. Eh, it’s alright.
  • Aliens: Colonial Marines, Gearbox’s bungled attempt to create a sequel to Aliens.
  • Final Fantasy XIII-2, with Lightning set to return next year, now’s a good time to play this one.
  • Contra: Shattered Soldier, one of the greatest PS2 games ever is now available on your PS3.
  • Pirates: Legend of the Black Buccaneer, a PS2 pirate game, now available on the PS3.
  • Flying Hamster HD (Vita), a hamster shooter. Enough said.

In celebration of the E3 Expo, Sony has also discounted a ton of games in the PlayStation Store this week including Dishonored, Tomb Raider, Borderlands 2, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and many more. If you’re looking for deals, you need to consult the full list at the PlayStation Blog.

That PlayStation Blog link also includes a complete list of this week’s new game add-ons. And be sure to hit the jump for more details on the new releases for this week. (more…)

Posted in News, PS3, Vita | Tagged , ,

Gearbox, Sega sued over misleading Aliens: Colonial Marines demos

alienscolonialmarines-header

So it’s come to this (not that we’re surprised). Sega and Gearbox Studios have been named as defendants in a lawsuit filed by Damion Perrine in the Northern District of California court against. Perrine is seeking to create a class action suit against the publisher and developer of Aliens: Colonial Marines, citing the deceptive and false advertising claims made by both companies during pre-release trade show demonstrations of the game.

Perrine has also used his suit to take aim at the review embargo critics had to operate under for Colonial Marines. According to the suit, because the embargo ended on the game’s release date, pre-order purchasers and early adopters were deprived information necessary to make an informed buying decision. I’m no lawyer, but I believe any judgment in favor of this part of the lawsuit would essentially make pre-selling any item illegal. In hoping for class action status, Perrine is seeking damages for anyone who purchased the game on or before its release date.

A statement from Sega said that Perrine’s lawsuit was “without merit” and the publisher plans to defend it “vigorously.” Gearbox also responded, saying, “We continue to support the game, and will defend the rights of entertainers to share their works-in-progress without fear of frivolous litigation.”

As terrible as this whole situation is, Gearbox does have a point.

[Source: Polygon (1) (2)]

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Game over man… Sega cancels Aliens: Colonial Marines for Wii U

alienscolonialmarines-header

The final chapter of the sad story of Aliens: Colonial Marines has now been written as Sega has officially canceled the Wii U version of the game. The game was originally expected to be released as part of the Wii U’s launch window, but that deadline came and went last week without any word from Sega or developer Gearbox Software.

But that all changed today. Speaking to Joystiq, a Sega representative said: “Sega can confirm that the Wii U SKU of Aliens: Colonial Marines is no longer in development.”

I guess you could say Sega nuked it from orbit… since its mandatory I use that line in any Aliens: Colonial Marines story.

Posted in News, Wii U | Tagged

Dead Space 3 slices up the competition in February 2013 NPD report

deadspace3-header

Do you remember that rumor about Dead Space 3‘s poor sales? Yeah… apparently that was a load of space garbage. The action horror title was officially crowned the best-selling retail game of February 2013 by retail tracking firm The NPD Group.

New releases Crysis 3, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and the troubled launch of Aliens: Colonial Marines also landed spots in the top ten.

Here’s the complete list of the top ten best-selling games in February 2013:

1. Dead Space 3 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, PC)
3. Crysis 3 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
4. NBA 2K13 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC)
5. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3, Xbox 360)
6. Aliens: Colonial Marines 2013 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
7. Just Dance 4 (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U)
8. Far Cry 3 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
9. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (PS3, Vita)
10. Madden NFL 13 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Vita, Wii U)

Posted in News, PC, PS3, PSP, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360 | Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

The Aliens: Colonial Marines saga so far

alienscolonialmarines-header

By now, you’ve probably heard at least some of the sordid details surrounding the development process of Aliens: Colonial Marines. Did Gearbox push the majority of the development duties onto TimeGate Studios in order to have more time to work on Borderlands 2? Was the game rewritten and reworked multiple times in the six-year development cycle? What happened to the Wii U version?

Destructoid has compiled a pretty thorough timeline of the events so far and it makes excellent afternoon reading. It’s a much better use of your time than watching Alien 3, that’s for sure.

Aliens: Colonial Marines has turned out to be more than just a bad game. It’s a confusing story of allegations, outsourcing, and potential deception on a considerable level. The biggest mystery to come out of this debacle is the question of who actually made the game. Nobody’s entirely sure.

And sadly (or not, you know, because of all the bad reviews), it looks like the Wii U version of Aliens: Colonial Marines has been postponed indefinitely.

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360 | Tagged

New Releases: Aliens Colonial Marines, Brain Age 3, Omerta, More

newreleases021213

First things first, Nintendo’s hard brain training game, Brain Age: Concentration Training, is available for the 3DS today. Dr. Kawashima, the master of brains himself, has promised that you’ll have a devilishly good time with the third game in the Brain Age series.

Moving on, this week’s other major release is Aliens: Colonial Marines. The Sega-published, Gearbox-developer continuation of the Alien saga has been in development for a long time, but if you’ve ever wanted a direct sequel to Aliens, this is your best chance. Pick it up on Tuesday for the PC, PS3, or Xbox 360.

Also available this week is Omerta: City of Gangsters. If you’ve ever thought, “a strategy RPG starring gangsters and set in the bootleggin’ Prohibition era would be a hoot-and-a-half,” then this PC and Xbox 360 game might be for you. It also might be for you if you regularly use the phrase “hoot-and-a-half” in regular conversation.

Finally, a pair of 3DS games make their belated debut on the portable platform. Both Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 3D are now available on Nintendo’s handheld.

Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged , ,

Aliens: Colonial Marines story trailer nuked my brain from orbit

Gearbox’s Aliens: Colonial Marines is less than two months away. February 12, 2013 to be exact (though TBA on the Wii U). The game has been in development a long time, but it looks like it might just be worth the wait. Especially after the epic story trailer that Sega has dropped onto the Internet today.

“In about 30 seconds that horizon is going to turn black as the most dangerous killing machines in the universe rise up over it.”

Whoa! Welcome to the official sequel to Aliens. It is about time!

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360 | Tagged