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SEGA and Gearbox claim Aliens: Colonial Marines lawsuit is “without merit”

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Just a few short days after a class-action lawsuit filing in the California court system claiming that SEGA and Gearbox released and sold Aliens: Colonial Marines to the public under the pretense of false advertising, the two companies have responded by unsurprisingly dismissing it .

“SEGA cannot comment on specifics of ongoing litigation, but we are confident that the lawsuit is without merit and we will defend it vigorously,” the publisher said.

Gearbox, however, wasn’t quite so soft of the wording, defending its use of unlabeled demonstration walkthroughs.

“Attempting to wring a class action lawsuit out of a demonstration is beyond meritless. 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 it stands, there’s little doubt that due to the very focused nature of the lawsuit that this whole scenario will ultimately end up just being withdrawn or thrown out by a judge. The damage has likely been done in the eyes of players however in terms of the public relations perception, more so for the developer Gearbox than Sega.

The response comes after news that co-developer Timegate Studios has filed for bankruptcy.

[Via Kotaku]

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SEGA, Gearbox Served Class-Action Lawsuit For Aliens: Colonial Marines

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Aliens: Colonial Marines drew ire from gaming fans due to its shoddy gameplay and overall lackluster production. The quality, or lack thereof, was so substantial that a lawsuit was filed in a Californian court on Apr. 30 by law firm Edelson LLC at the behest of Damion Perrine for false advertising.

Within the lawsuit, Perrine claims that builds shown off at events such as PAX and E3 were in no way indicative of how the final product would ultimately turn out. The suit further claims that the enforcement press embargoes, which were lifted the very morning of the game’s release, meant that game media could not alert early adopters of the disparity in quality between the demos and the final. It finally claims damages for players who pre-ordered the game or purchased the game on launch.

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Rumor: Anonymous Gearbox developer claims Gearbox lied to SEGA, SEGA temporarily canceled the project

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Destructoid has done a pretty awesome job covering the clusterfuck that is Aliens: Colonial Marines. Now they have learned, courtesy of a former Gearbox developer that spoke to them only under the condition of anonymity, that Gearbox not only lied to SEGA but that this lie lead to the project temporarily being canceled.

“Gearbox was taking people off the project to put them on Borderlands 1. This was before the big art style change happened on Borderlands. Our team was getting smaller by the month, making it very difficult to get the game made. Ironically several of the team members were ex-3D Realms people who were saying [paraphrasing] ‘Finally, we’re going to Gearbox to make Aliens, and we’re going to ship a fucking game!’ Hah.

At some point in 2008, SEGA temporarily pulled the plug on the game. They caught wind of Gearbox shifting resources (despite still collecting milestone checks as if the team were full size) and lying to SEGA AND 2K about the number of people working on each project. This led to the round of layoffs at Gearbox in late 2008.” -Anonymous former Gearbox developer

It should be noted that due to the developer’s anonymity, this should be regarded as a rumor. Though if this is to be believed, the next question one has to ask is…why did SEGA pick the project back up? While this is pure conjecture on my part, I would surmise that the resurrection of this project had everything to do with the financial success SEGA saw with Aliens vs. Predator, released in 2010. The following year, Aliens: Colonial Marines made its debut at E3 and…well, we know the rest, don’t we?

I would suggest reading the entire article over at Destructoid.

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E3 2012: Aliens: Colonial Marines interview with Design Director John Mulkey

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Recently, SEGA of America announced big changes in the way they publish their games. From now on, they will only publish what they feel are AAA titles. Sega then, must be really happy with Gearbox’s upcoming release of Aliens: Colonial Marines as it has been given a big push as of late. Despite several delays, the game seems to be coming together nicely. Yesterday, we got to talk with design director John Mulkey about the upcoming game based on the blockbuster franchise.

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Aliens: Colonial Marines pushed back to Fall 2012

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Though it was never exactly given a firm release date, Gearbox’s highly-anticipated Aliens project had long been pegged for a Spring 2012 release. That’s no longer the case according to G4, who’s reporting today that the game has slipped into the Fall 2012 window.

This means that it will be facing competition from the likes of Bioshock Infinite and Halo 4, plus whatever Call of Duty game Activision’s prepping, so SEGA’s marketing department had better be ready to write some big checks if they don’t want this promising-looking title to get lost in the shuffle.

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Aliens Colonial Marines: Collectors Edition – Leaked Picture

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Sega and Gearbox Software’s Aliens: Colonial Marines is getting a pretty hot Collector’s Edition. We know this thanks to a leaked shot teasing the collection.

Judging by the leak the CE will come with 3 exclusive in-game multiplayer weapons and an exclusive game mode. (We can only assume these will be available as DLC for anyone who bought the regular edition.) Those who buy the CE will also get an ‘Original USCM Dossier’ and a resin display model of someone piloting the Power Loader. It will all come in a sexy limited edition display case. Nice!

Aliens: Colonial Marines is due this spring for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

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Aliens: Colonial Marines – E3 Demo Footage

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When Aliens: Colonial Marines was shown to the press behind closed doors at E3 2011 it seemed to be very well received. Now the rest of us unworthy peons can finally all see why. Narrated by Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford here is a walkthrough of Aliens: Colonial Marines second missions as shown at E3.

Any Aliens fan can tell you that the guys at Gearbox have gone above and beyond to recreate the world and atmosphere of the Aliens movie. With online drop-in Co-Op for up to 4 players I hope for some intence fire-fights with my friends.

I think the game looks beautiful, the graphics are great and the atmosphere seems authentic. If I have one small complaint it would be with the fire and muzzle flash effects looking a bit dated and the tracer bullets looking a bit bulky and cartoonish. Otherwise, everything looks superb and I can’t wait to get my hands on it!

From this first look Aliens: Colonial Marines looks as though it’s shaping up to be something special, fingers crossed!

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New Aliens: Colonial Marines images surface at GamesCom

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Now, here’s a game that continues to look promising. The long-awaited result of the partnership between SEGA and Gearbox remains a mystery in a lot of ways, but the snippets of information that we continue to receive certainly paint a promising picture. Check out these fresh new screens at the jump as you whet your appetite for the game’s eventual release (PS3, 360, Wii U, and PC) in 2012.

[Source: AVP Galaxy]

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Aliens: Colonial Marines coming to Wii U

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[UPDATE: Looks like the clip’s made its way to Youtube. ^Check it out, comes up right after Dirt.]

Turns out, two SEGA games made appearances at Nintendo’s E3 2011 press conference. Mario and Sonic at the London Olympic Games for the 3DS got a showing in a montage, but, on a bit of a more surprising note, the Wii U (yup, that’s really the name of their next system) will be getting Aliens: Colonial Marines, which actually got one of the lengthier clips. We’ll update this story with the clip when it becomes available.

[Update 2: Now we have a press release. Hit the jump to read it!]

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Aliens: Colonial Marines back in development

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After the success of Aliens vs Predator, it is not very shocking to hear that Aliens: Colonial Marines is back in development. But we have gotten it confirmed by Gearbox Software boss Randy Pitchfork.

“We have an Aliens game with Sega and 20th Century Fox which we’re really excited about, It’s the thing I’ve been stealing from all my career. Now I’m really working on it, but we’ve been quiet about that so far.”

We expect to hear more about this title in the upcoming months or possibly closer to E3. We hope that this time around, it is actually released! Maybe they can even get that Aliens RPG back in development?

[Source: MCVUK]

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