Sega Blames Gearbox For Aliens: CM

Aliens: Colonial Marines publisher has Sega moved to settle a class-action lawsuit to the tune of $1.25 million in August for false advertising for the game. They have decided to shift to marketing problems of the game to Gearbox Software, according to court documents obtained by Game Informer. Internal emails between the two companys reveal Gearbox aren't innocent as they seem. The documents indicate that Gearbox told Sega that the E3 2011 demo marketing represented what the developer was aiming for with the final game.

"During one of my conversations with Gearbox today I verified that the E3 Demo is indeed the bar that we should use to determine where the entire game will be," said Sega senior producer Matt Powers in an email to colleagues.

Gearbox's claims that it was not involved in marketing however Sega says that while it was supposed to have approval on all marketing and PR announcements, Gearbox repeatedly made announcements to press without Sega's approval. When confronted Gearbox told a Sega PR representative that Gearbox head Randy Pitchford basically does what he likes.
"I spoke face to face to (Gearbox) Gibson about their persistent panel leaking," said Sega's Matt Eyre in an email. "Effectively — it's Randy [Pitchford] doing whatever the fuck he likes. Apparently he did it twice on [Borderlands 2] also, against all plans and despite the fact they asked him not to."

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Games in development for so long

Review’s are in for Aliens: Colonial Marines and it seems the game has failed. This has been one of my most anticipated games this year. I remember over five years ago (before AVP) when it was announced on Ps2 how excited i was for this game. Yet its just a let down. Now i know what you're thinking, i should give the game a try myself. But at £40 a pop can i afford to give the game a chance. Can i not expect a decent game that’s playable for my cash? It seems to be a growing trend that games that take so long to be developed just seem to go with the motions and suffer from all the gaming cliches. First there was Duke Nukem and now Aliens: CM, and yes both are Gearbox games the same team that fetched us the wonderful Borderlands series. In these games there have been complaints of glitches, textures not loading, ai team mates just standing there staring into space and game breaking freezes where you will need to start the game again.

Duke Nukem is a prime example of lazy development although i guess they can be forgiven for how many times the game has stop and started. Duke Nukem was being made for 12 years and i that is where the problem is. When i game is designed on a last gen system surely it would be better to start again with fresh new ideas and keep up with competition rather than use age old ideas that have been done to death and just plant HD textures over the old graphics. There are many examples of games Too Human, Two Worlds, Final Fantasy XIII (yes i hate it!) that suffer from repetitive gameplay, bad graphics, boring storylines and glitches galore. What i'm getting at here is if your gonna take your time on these games start from scratch don't start with the basis and keep that idea all the way through development. Go back to the drawing board, start again if needs be, Capcom did it with Resident Evil 4 and look how that turned out. So if you're reading...Valve, Sega please make Shenmue 3 and Half Life 3 at least approachable and if things aren’t looking good, start again and don’t just try to rush the games out cos you need money. Good games are what keeps the gamers coming and that is something the fans won’t be doing for the next Aliens game.​

Published scores:

Games TM - 4/10: "Mechanically, the game functions, but the fun of the Aliens universe is quickly drained away by what amounts to a mundane shooting gallery through a drab and lifeless world."

PS3gen.fr - 5/10: (Translated) "We expected a lot from this project. And unfortunately, our disappointment was all the greater."

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