Aliens: Colonial Marines lawsuit dismisses Gearbox Software

[George]

Did a post about it here: http://segabits.com/blog/2015/05/28/aliens-colonial-marines-lawsuit-dismisses-gearbox-software/

In May 12th, US District Judge James Donato actually denied the original motion for class certification of the suite and also denied dismissing Gearbox Software from the case. But just yesterday it seems that the plaintiff’s attorney agreed to dismiss Gearbox with prejudice (meaning they can’t file another suit against them concerning Aliens: Colonial Marines) and in return Gearbox won’t be seeking legal fees. Of course there have been no explanation why the plaintiffs all of a sudden dropped the charging against Gearbox Software, after 2 years of fighting in court.

[crackdude]

Maybe a deal was settled under the table?

[Sharky]

Sickening. Fuck those slimy cunts.

[MadeManG74]

Well I guess technically Sega is ultimately responsible for all of it. Even if they claim that 'Gearbox did the advertising without their knowledge', it's still Sega's negligence that allowed that to happen I guess?

I don't know if Sega has grounds to make a civil suit in response to Gearbox breaching contract or not in this case.
Maybe they can just send their Yakuza thugs to Pitchford's house?

[Sharky]

Well I guess technically Sega is ultimately responsible for all of it. Even if they claim that 'Gearbox did the advertising without their knowledge', it's still Sega's negligence that allowed that to happen I guess?

From the various sauces and SEGA themselves we've heard that Gearbox diverted SEGA's funding too other projects, outsourced development to another developer even though they were contracted to develop it and Gearbox were the  ones responsible for releasing info and trailers even without going through SEGA first. From all accounts they were a nightmare to work with.

Of course SEGA are partly to blame for releasing the game, but 'ultimately responsible for all of it.' Common... By all accounts Iit sounds like SEGA were conned here.

[MadeManG74]

From the various sauces and SEGA themselves we've heard that Gearbox diverted SEGA's funding too other projects, outsourced development to another developer even though they were contracted to develop it and Gearbox were the  ones responsible for releasing info and trailers even without going through SEGA first. From all accounts they were a nightmare to work with.

Of course SEGA are partly to blame for releasing the game, but 'ultimately responsible for all of it.' Common... By all accounts Iit sounds like SEGA were conned here.

I mean in the eyes of the law. Not saying that Gearbox aren't shitty for what they did, but in terms of who's legally responsible for false advertising, that comes back to Sega.

If Sega is going to pursue misappropriation of funds or whatever that's a different lawsuit entirely.

[Aki-at]

I mean in the eyes of the law. Not saying that Gearbox aren't shitty for what they did, but in terms of who's legally responsible for false advertising, that comes back to Sega.

If Sega is going to pursue misappropriation of funds or whatever that's a different lawsuit entirely.

Even if they were conned out of their money, SEGA was pretty stupid to allow such levels of deception. They cancelled Obsidian's Alien game that actually had promise but they were stupid enough to allow sending funds to Gearbox shows the level of mismanagement that was far too common in their organisation.

(Gearbox is a shitty developer and all but SEGA is not absolved of all blame here.)

[MadeManG74]

Even if they were conned out of their money, SEGA was pretty stupid to allow such levels of deception. They cancelled Obsidian's Alien game that actually had promise but they were stupid enough to allow sending funds to Gearbox shows the level of mismanagement that was far too common in their organisation.

(Gearbox is a shitty developer and all but SEGA is not absolved of all blame here.)

My point exactly. Unfortunately it was Sega's freedom given to developers that made such an attractive publisher as well.

To be fair to Sega, wasn't Gearbox doing good work with Sega before this fiasco?  They had a decent track record not so long ago.

[Aki-at]

My point exactly. Unfortunately it was Sega's freedom given to developers that made such an attractive publisher as well.

To be fair to Sega, wasn't Gearbox doing good work with Sega before this fiasco?  They had a decent track record not so long ago.

Yeah Samba de Amigo was as good as it could be.

But letting them develop a game for close to 7 years (Or 6?) was pretty shoddy. As much as Gearbox are cretins here, SEGA showed poor decision making not to pull the plug on this game. Honestly it makes me wonder if Alien: Isolation might have enjoyed EVEN better sales if it weren;t for Colonial Marines.

[Sharky]

From what was leaked of Obsidians cancelled RPG.... SEGA were right to can it... Looked terrible.

[George]

This court case has nothing to do with the accusation that Gearbox funneled money into Borderlands 2. Most likely Gearbox told them they won't stop fighting and will drag this as long as they want. Probably gave up and will pursue SEGA who just wants it to be over.

Also Gearbox chose false videos and demos and they also showed those to SEGA, so they where being deceptive towards SEGA. Randy Pitchford also did what he wanted, even if SEGA told them not to show a trailer or something at E3 and would say stuff that wasn't true. Since this is also about E3 and footage that Gearbox showed without permission from the publisher, I dunno.

Honestly there is a cycle here, SEGA America didn't know how handled boxed games is what it seems. SEGA Europe do have hiccups but at least their Total War, Isolation and other published titles under them have been either released with critical praised or patched and issues forgotten shortly after release.

While in America we got Colonial Marines and Boom, which we won't hear the end of for another 10 years.