Gearbox "Stole" From SEGA to Fund Other Projects, Claims Alleged SEGA Employee

93
Lee Bradley

Since its release Aliens: Colonial Marines has picked up negative attention well beyond simple poor review scores.

As well as suggestions that the game was outsourced by Gearbox to Section 8 developer TimeGate, it has also been alleged that Gearbox basically left the game to die.

And now, it gets worse. A statement from someone who claims to be a SEGA employee says that Gearbox’s treatment of Aliens: Colonial Marines and its dealings with SEGA are tantamount to “theft.”

This latest development comes from someone going under the name of Bryan Danielson, on a blog called SEGA Awakens. Danielson said that while Timegate and SEGA are also responsible for the poor quality of Aliens: Colonial Marines, Gearbox is guilty of “embezzelment.”

“Gearbox stole from SEGA,” said Danielson. “They robbed us, lied to us about the game, and tried to get another company to make the game instead.

“Pitchford and Gearbox wanted to focus heavily on Duke Nukem Forever, but how would they get the money to hire some of the 3D Realms team and even buy the intellectual property? 

“Sure, they made a lot from Borderlands, but guess where they got the money to fund Borderlands in the first place? Yup, SEGA.

“So Gearbox essentially lied to SEGA, mishandled funds, broke agreements and contractual obligations to work on other projects, didn’t want to work on a game they were contractually obligated to work on and gave it to another team, poor organization and direction on ACM, took on too many projects from different companies at once, and other things that we may not even know about. 

“Hell, part of me believes that Gearbox wanted this thing delayed as much as possible so they can get more funding money to embezzle from SEGA.”

Danielson said that he has heard rumours that SEGA was looking to sue Gearbox, but that Gearbox had fulfilled its contract, despite the poor quality of the game and the repeated delays on the project.

Aliens: Colonial Marines was first announced as a Gearbox project back in December 2006, missing numerous release windows before hitting shelves earlier this month on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. A Wii U version of the game is due next month, but that’s supposed to be the weakest of the lot.

“I strongly believe that SEGA should not have released the game and made the fans pay for it, they should have taken Gearbox straight to court, because they stole money from us to fund Borderlands and Duke Nukem Forever,” said Danielson.

“This should be a lesson in management for you all. In my view, the board and the people supplying the money should not have any creative control over a product. In this case, what happened clearly was SEGA had a decent eye on the project, rightfully cancelled it, when they saw the problems, then someone decided to restart the project, leading to this massive mess.

“This game should have been cancelled permanently, and the final product is undeniable proof of it. Despite that, I believe SEGA wanted to try to get some of the money back, at the fans’ expense. SEGA should have also watched the project and development a lot better, because there was a lot of warning signs that said this was a disaster in the making.”

Before release it was suggested by an ex-Gearbox employee that Aliens: Colonial Marines had been largely outsourced to Timegate, a studio with a solid if uninspiring development history.

“Gearbox isn’t even making the game, except for the multiplayer,” said the source. “Primary development was outsourced to TimeGate Studios, which has a less than stellar past. I hope it proves me wrong, as I still have a lot of friends still working at Gearbox, but I am expecting it to be average at best.”

SEGA denied the claims, while Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford said that TimeGate contributed about 20-25 per cent of the work, Nerve Software created the game’s multiplayer and Gearbox handled the rest.

However, Rossinna-Sama, a moderator on the official TimeGate forums disagreed.

"They [TimeGate] are responsible for the weapons, the characters, some of the story, a fair amount of the aliens, and I don't mean conceptualisation, they did the actual work of making said weapons and so on,” said Rossinna-Sama.

Interestingly, however, there was confusion even within TimeGate, as to how much the studio had contributed.

"The game underwent a lot of changes so TG doesn't actually know how much of their content is left," Rossinna-Sama added. "Some had the estimate that 50 per cent of what you see in the campaign is their work, others wanted to see for themselves and would get back to me after playing the game themselves."

These changes are further proof of what someone claiming to be a Gearbox employee says was a development period marked by creative differences and conflicting visions.

Apparently, Gearbox began the production of Aliens: Colonial Marines back in 2006, before handing it over to TimeGate in 2010. However, when TimeGate took the lead it threw out much of Gearbox’s work, including all of the art and design that had been churned out over the proceeding four years.

So when Gearbox shipped Borderlands 2 and took back Aliens: Colonial Marines it was horrified to find that the game was in a “pretty horrid state.” 

“Campaign didn't make much sense, the boss fights weren't implemented, PS3 was way over memory, etcetcetc. GBX was pretty unhappy with TG's work, and some of Campaign maps were just completely redesigned from scratch,” said a Gearbox source.

“There were some last minute feature requests, most notably female marines, and the general consensus among GBX devs was that there was no way this game was going to be good by ship. There just wasn't enough time.”

As a result, many developers at Gearbox didn’t want to work on the game, but as the company had already asked SEGA for numerous extensions, they restarted what they could, patched up what they could, and shipped it.

This would seem to be evidenced up by the huge differences in quality between a demo shown to press last year and the final product. Indeed, such has been the intrigue surrounding the game that Randy Pitchford has been forced to address the matter publicly. In an manner of speaking.

"That is understood and fair and we are looking at that. Lots of info to parse, lots of stake holders to respect," he wrote on Twitter. It’s the last official word we’ve had on the subject.

So perhaps we’ll never know the truth about the troubled development of Aliens: Colonial Marines, but from various people close to the project it looks as if we already have a decent idea. The whole thing is a mess.

We can't remember such a high profile title in recent years, that has fallen so far amidst so much acrimony.

Comments
93
  • Excellent game, I don;t know what all the bitching was about. Top 5 games of the generation.
  • If these allegations are true then my respect for Gearbox will be greatly diminished. Delivering a shitty game and theft? Yeah really bad. A lack of respect for Aliens fans, Super bad.
  • If this is true, why not take it to court? I call BS from the supossedly Sega employee :)
  • @1 Your opinion but apparently many others feel differently. Man Sega should have not wasted their time and money with Gearbox on this game if that is the case. They should have invested in Bayonetta 2
  • The funny thing here is everyone canned DNF but I quite enjoyed it. That said, Gearbox are a bunch of smarmy whoisits that (and I have no doubts about this) didn't even have the common courtesy to give SEGA the reach around why they went all Brokeback Mountain on them. The only money these cretins will and have got out of me was the Eight quid I spent on DNF! (Oh wait a minute, that went to GAME. Oh well).
  • So Gearbox lied to Sega? Well then why Sega haven't let their testers to checked if game is well or poor if poor should tell Gearbox and TimeGate to polishes it off. Gearbox really should fixes everything problems when they is in developing after TimeGate problem. Game is fun yeah and itself one of worst games ever made. Sega should next time for re-think about which right time, bring Aliens game to be full polished. Sega need think about it for next generation and next Aliens game. :)
  • I rented the game and it's trash. Staying away from any further Gearbox projects.
  • @1 I take it you played the game on another account because your profile suggests you have not played it.
  • That would explain why the Borderlands DLC is terrible. Gearbox had too many projects going on. They should have focused one game at a time. Sucks that a great game like Borderlands had to suffer from their greed.
  • @8 - the votes have been collected and I think, whether you have played ACM or not, it's been universally panned by both journalists and gamers alike and while it may still be fun to some, (and that's a minority) to the masses its not worth getting your wallet out for.....
  • Damn Randy, what the hell?
  • I'm glad I'm not an Aliens fan and was never interested in this game.
  • Sadly its a believable scenario look at the last couple game Gearbox has had its hand it Duke Nukem Forever got horrible reviews for something that was in development for so long and now ACM. If Borderlands 2 hadn't been such a critical success Gearbox would probably be next 38 Studios if any of these reported lawsuits ever show momentum.
  • I'm thinking if they were going to sue, we would be hearing more then just comments from random "unnamed sources". Comes across as SEGA just trying to save face.
  • @1 you're not allowed to go against popular opinion. Scorn on your children. Awful shit game, if anyone likes it youre a mug. terrible game.
  • I was willing to give this game the benefit of the doubt. But it genuinely is really bad. I'll still finish the rest of the Achievements and send it back to Lovefilm.
  • This guy's story doesn't add up. While the game was definitely a train wreck, there is no way that SEGA didn't have even a slight clue as to the poor quality of the game. If they didn't know, that would indicate gross ineptitude on SEGA's part. If they did know, we'd be hearing a lot more than just rumors by now.
  • Bryan Danielson is the real name of WWE mainstay Daniel Bryan FWIW. Probably nothing. CATTLE MUTILATION~!
  • @13: Oh FFS, the DNF that was released in the 10's was not the same DNF that started development in the 90's. Several versions of a game titled 'Duke Nukem Forever' were made a scrapped. Look it up.
  • If this is the worst game anyone has ever played you clearly haven't played enough of them. You can find much worse than Colonial Marines. This game is mediocre but far from the worst game ever.
  • Pitchford in jail. GB bankrupt. BL2 pulled from stores. SEEEGAAA!
  • @1 obviously, you're not serious. @17 Sega did know, and he says as much. But by the time they found out it was too late, and had to be released to try and claw back some of those many $. Hell, gearbox probably showed them the demo we all saw last year and Sega were none the wiser that the game would be complete shite. In my opinion not only have Gearbox supposedly stolen from Sega, but from the customers, because I have never seen false advertising as bad as this- the demo isn't even of the same game!! I rented this game and I can't even bring myself to start the second mission; it's all kinds of bad. With DNF at least it didn't take its self seriously, so it was OK. I can't remember playing a game this bad, and I've played some really bad games in my time. AVP was way better than this trash, and that game wasn't great. Rant over/
  • This is a nightmare of itself. I haven't seen this much chaos on a game since... Superman 64... yeah, I went there. Gearbox, I'm sorry but you lost alot of respect and it will take a LONG time before the gaming community will forgive you.
  • 20-Yes, i agreed. Poor graphics but somehow its fun.Its not THAT bad...I played a much worse games,than A:CM.See: Turning point:Fall of liberty,The club,SW:republic heroes,LOTR:Conquest,The Godfather 2,Hellboy,Fracture,SOF:Payback,The golden compass,Conflict:deniad ops...etc
  • No they should have more teams two or three AAA teams and 1 or so arcade game teams the arcade games bring in quick easy money to fund AAA games or dlc or more arcade
  • The time has come for Aliens fans to say to Gearbox: "Get away from us, you bitch!"
  • 14 thumbs down because I expressed my opinion that the game isn't all that bad, and is in fact a very good game for an Aliens fan? Classy community :(
  • "Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford said that TimeGate contributed about 20-25 per cent of the work, Nerve Software created the game’s multiplayer and Gearbox handled the rest." So 20-25 was handled by Timegate 100% mp by Nerve software Overall they made like 10-20% themself on a gearbox game? Considering the SP is like 10 hours long that couldnt have taken more then 2-3 months lol @27 They prolly thought you were trolling just because reviews means everything (if you are new to game)
  • I call BS. First off, Duke Nukem Forever ended up being crap, and the money required to fund that thing had to be incredibly low because it was not a high caliber AAA game. Second, it's the very fact Duke Nukem Forever was a flop that reinforces Aliens: Colonial Marines simply being a flop -- Gearbox doesn't always make the best stuff. It really seems they worked with what they had, and SEGA just didn't want to give them more time to do the best they could have. You can definitely see a touch of Gearbox in there, from Easter Eggs to Achievements, but all in all, it just ends up being a "not meant to be" kind of thing. However, going out of your way to blame Gearbox for problems that could have been avoided by trusting your game with better people so it didn't end up as a steaming pile of shit by the time Gearbox got it back is totally uncalled for. It's not their fault the GB devs didn't want to work on it if it was in such a shoddy state -- I wouldn't want my name on a piece of crap like this either.
  • @1 & @27 guess the other games in your top 5 are Damnation Duke Nukem Forever My Horse And Me 2 Hannah Montana You have great taste in games mate!
  • It's such a shame how bad the game ended up, too bad Gearbox didn't give it the attention it gave Borderlands 2. Hopefully next gen they don't come up with another Duke or Aliens.
  • @30, My Horse and Me 2 was totally legit, yo. They had like, unlimited customization options, next gen graphics, and the best music and voice acting to date. (And that kids is why Atari shouldn't make Horse games.)
  • In space- No one can hear you scream for your money back...
  • This is a pack of crap Sega. If you knew gearbox were stealing from you then why did you continue to fund them. There is only 2 possible outcomes to this, either it's a lie or Sega are a bad publisher. If I loaned another company money I would be keeping an eye out on what they spent money on. Also its not classed as theft if the money you took you put back (as banks do this with your money and that's legal). For example if I borrow some money off someone and I win the lottery with it I only owe that person the original amount. Basically Sega hired gearbox and gearbox hired timegate. So how does the blame all land on gearbox? Just look at the 3 separate company's and the games they have made, oh look gearboxes games scoring in the 90s and Sega and timegate scoring in the 60s.
  • In all honesty, that blog hardly seems like the most credible source of information. Phrases like "Part of me believes..." and "I'm hearing rumors that..." generally don't lend themselves to reliable information. Nor does him stating that he had absolutely no involvement with the project. It's a rant from an employee who never had any connection to the game and has no knowledge of the situation beyond what he read on the internet or heard from his co-workers. In summary; nothing to see here.
  • Maybe this person was disgruntled after having all their badass ranks, golden keys, and heads/skins getting erased after the Borderlands 2 hot fix update.
  • The game is not good but it is not THAT bad either. Although having said that most people enjoyed the multiplayer more wheras I think its absolute guff and the SP is quite good. Worst part is the challenge system though, whoever thought it was a good idea to force you to complete challenges to unlock others which you could be working on simultaneously needs a padded room.
  • I wonder if people will still believe anything Randy Pitchford says the next time he gets on stage to show a demo off for his next game. Some one should at least ask if the demo he is showing will actually be in the game next time and if he thinks the game will be managed like DNF or A:CM was.
  • So... Are they still going to move forward with the several DLC releases?
  • This is why publishers should keep a close eye on the projects they're funding, say what you like about the likes of EA and Activision, but they wouldnt allow someone to makes fools of them like sega has here.
  • is there anything Sega doesn't bitch about? They are on a sueing spree latley.
  • @30 I actually quite enjoyed Duke Nukem Forever. Sure it felt like a very old game, but for me that is not really an issue. I still had fun with it and experienced no issues or glitches throughout the game while getting the full gamerscore for it. Only issues I did have for it was the lack of co-op, two weapon limit, and regenerating health. ( Oh, and no secret places). But hey, that's just my opinion, which I know is a veeeeery small minority. As for Gearbox themselves, I can't say that I have liked them very much lately. Not sure how Colonial Marines really is quality wise, as I haven't played it. But after the stunts they have pulled with Borderlands 2 and its DLC and basically lying and screwing season pass holders, I'm not sure I can trust them anymore. That being said, I'm sure I will still give Colonial Marines a fair chance, since I'm sure I would still be able to enjoy it. I can find something in just about every game I play that I find enjoyable. :) (Except Blacklight)
  • Sounds like too different studios and agendas in operation. I have no doubt gearbox shifted funds about hoping it would pay off in the end.
  • I have not played A:CM so I canot judge the game. It is obvious though that this game would not be good since it was initially announced in 2006, thats over 6 years of production time, and how many delays? It is unfortunate that many of you bought the game and are upset about the games quality, but the writing was on the wall. Game developers will always try and fleece consumers, especially when they ar in a deep hole and need to recoup funds for a failed project. In a nutshell the whole situation is a mess.
  • @27 I've had a similar reaction from the community here on occassion. I am forever seeing people hate on others and be needlessly rude, troll etc. It's not the most pleasant community I've seen online. Just have to take it on the chin.
  • Haha at #1 you must enjoy playing shitty games cause this game was complete trash.
  • "The Blame Game" is always a sad sight to see....
  • I was really looking forward to this the whole time it's been in development hell. Just goes to show what happens when a game takes so long to make. Now I've heard how bad this game is, I very much doubt I will even bother when it hits the bargain bin. Same as Duke Nukem really.
  • After the initial reports of them outsourcing the majority of the game I was getting really big Silicon Knights vibes from Gearbox and if this person tells the truth I would have been right. Shady industry.
  • so essentially.... "the big game we put hardly any work into didn't sell well, so now we are gonna bitch and cry" STFU sega, you did this last time with AVP, you just give the series to the wrong people clearly.
  • I don't know about you all, but this sounds like a lot of butthurt. Also, I seem to remember hearing a very similar complaint from a company over a failed IP... [Insert Image of "Too Human" here] Oh yeah... I remember how that ended for the LAST group to try and sling blame everywhere but themselves. Yes, Gearbox dropped the ball. Yes, they're shit with taking over other people's IPs and series. They should have known better and just left ACM and DNF in development hell where they belonged. But to claim embezzlement? C'mon, this is the same company that produced Sonic '06 and then let Bayonetta 2 slip through their hands. They're by no means geniuses. SEGA's gotta man up to their failure in this flop.
  • @29 'It really seems they worked with what they had, and SEGA just didn't want to give them more time' because 7 years isn't long enough, right? And your entire 3rd paragraph made no sense whatsoever; I'm sure you had a point in there somewhere... @28 he didn't get thumbs down because he disagrees with the reviews. He got thumbs down, because it was a ridiculous troll comment. There is NO WAY this piece of shit game could be in anyone's top 5 games, unless they had only ever played 5, and even then it wouldn't be there. It's that bad. And all of the companies involved with its marketing and development should be ashamed.
  • This makes total sense as to why the game was continually delayed while gearbox continued releasing other games. I'd already lost most of my respect for Gearbox after DNF, they may not have coded most of the game but they knew fine well how shit it was before throwing it out there to make a quick buck. Then came the Borderlands DLC being outsourced because they couldn't be bothered to invest in their own IP's success. Now, after 6 years of telling us what MASSIVE Aliens fans they all are, it turns out they couldn't even be bothered to make the game themselves. What sort of excuse is it exactly to say they'll 'look into' why a game they were supposed to be making wasn't good, could they not even be bothered to check in on the devs they outsourced it to?!?!
  • @1 I enjoyed the game as well for what it's worth, but only because I'm a hardcore Alien fan. However, just because I enjoyed the game doesn't mean it's any less the utter fucking train wreck that it is. It's just flat out disappointing. My faith in Gearbox "Especially Pitchford" has reached a ground low. I'll never be pre-ordering another Gearbox game as long as they are around. I still have hopes that patches and so fourth can improve on some of the blatant disasters in this game "Screen tearing, muddy textures, AI, glitches etc.". I damn near hope Pitchford loses his job for this. AVP2010 gets alot of undeserved hate "some deserved as although it was leaps and bounds better then some made out, it still wasen't flawless ". Sadly it's 3 years the elder and an all the way around better game than this one, especially when it comes to graphics.
  • Sounds like Sega is just jealous of the success Gearbox has received from Borderlands...
  • i think gearbox screwed sega over but there still a really good game maker they made borderlands and duke had 10 year dev cycle so you cant blame them there. Colonial marines was huge let down. So i hope next game is a lot better
  • in my opinion the game just didnt get the love it deserved. Such an established brand as 'Aliens' set a bar this game just didnt hit. Having said that i have enjoyed playin it over the last few afternoons and fingers crossed for a free dlc by way of an apology for shippin a game they knew wasnt up to scratch. but what are the chances of that...lol
  • NO! NO! NO!
  • Bryan Danielson works for Sega but moonlights as Daniel Bryan in the WWE. Who would have known.
  • Remember people, its just a matter of opinions and what people like. The game is fun, and thats all that matters. The guns all sounded great and some of the aliens scared the poop out of me, while some of them were not scary at all. I know its not Halo, Gears of War quality but its still fun. The game is average overall but if everything that is being said is to be believed, than that is quite a neat trick. If you like the game, than thats the only persons review that matters. Now, SEGA should have looked at the game and said NO if they thought it was that bad. SEGA wanted to make money and did not really care too much about the fans. That being said, I hope the make another Aliens game and let DICE make it.
  • "...lots of stake holders to respect,". He said more in that one line than I think hes aware of...
  • I'm just glad that we got to experience Borderland 1 + 2; I don't really care about the method that it was created.
  • I hope Gearbox gets sued right out of the industry and Randy Pitchford ends up in prison for being a lying two-faced shit-eating fucking thief. Burn the witches!
  • Let's face facts: there aren't a lot of people defending this game or Gearbox at this point. And with the all the scrutiny with Borderlands 2 (the lack of a level increase, the sub=par DLC, etc.), this certainly isn't doing Gearbox any favors. My respect for Gearbox has already worn thin with the support (or lack thereof) on Borderlands 2 and this atrocity of a game that is Aliens: Colonial Marines, but this might take the cake.
  • Randys a douche, claimed BL2 would be miles ahead of BL1 and it fell so so short. Gearbox shit the bed hardcore, maybe this'll be a wake up call and they'll realize they shouldn't outsource anything, the subpar BL dlc and now subpar "game" that is Aliens anyone defending Gearbox are fool, fanboys, or "casual" gamers who love mind numbing gameplay and poorly implemented "innovations" also I "like" to "talk" with quotations
  • Gearbox is a piece of shit company. If it wasnt for one franchise, Borderlands, they would have been out of business a long time ago. Sega surely isnt as innocent in this whole thing as this blog makes them out to be. But anyone with a brain can see Gearbox is the company that messed this Aliens game up for the get go.
  • I'm not sure if this claim is true or not, but it certainly makes sense. I don't see how Sega gives Gearbox 6 years to get this game done and turns out so flawed. Sega should have maintained better oversight, of course, but either way, I think Gearbox will be held accountable for this by way of future publisher agreements if not by legal actions.
  • Even if this isn't entirely true, it seems to me that the true nature of Gearbox is becoming more and more apparent as time goes on. They are starting to feel like the next Activision/EA.
  • #1 is a legendary troll lololol
  • Good Job Pitchford (sarcasm), I can clearly see you getting CEO of the year with the way you manage Gearbox, you really deserve it! (restating sarcasm) Despite the studio's structure, Pitchford should know that dividing any studio (especially one of Gearbox's size) between 3+ games is a terrible and stupid thing to do.
  • It's quite obvious who should be given the chance with the Aliens brand.. ROCKSTEADY yeah, right there
  • It's always he said she said. Someone needs to take the blame but everyone tries to blame everyone else.
  • I dont really believe any of it. SEGA has been an over the hill company for years now. So ok they give rights or whatever to Gearbox to fix their crappy game. Gearbox polishes the turd,I guess,and releases it. People hate it for some reason or another and it gets bashed on the net.SEGA not wanting to take the responsibilty for making a "bad game", places blame on someone else. I bet anyone of you that if it was a smash hit SEGA would be all like " yeah that was us, we made that!" Grow up SEGA everybody makes a broken game every now and then.Besides it wasnt that bad of a game. People just had high expectations for this game and it didnt happen.
  • To those wishing that "Pitchford goes to jail" or "Gearbox closing" y'all are aware that you would be saying goodbye to the Borderlands franchise right?
  • I rented this game today, o see for myslef if this game was worth the $60. The first mission, was alright. The aliens didn't look very frightening and the facehuggers were horrible looking... Gearbox doesn't deserve this type of treatment from your people. Just because Gearbox helped develope this game doesn't mean thy you have to dis them for attempting to fix the horrible graphics and level designs created by TimeGate. Gearbox may or not of used to money to fund other projects but you can blame TimeGate for most of the issues with this. If you wish that Gearbox to be closed and Randy go to jail, neither of these will happen. Besides if it did we'd have to departure from the Borderlands Franchise. Besides, I love Gearbox's games., expect for this one and Duke Nukem..
  • Sounds like a an absolute disaster. On the other hand, Aliens.. really? Can't companies continue to make new games and not remake a title that has been released a dozen times already.
  • ITT: People who don't read articles and people who claim their opinions are facts. After reading the whole thing it seems like this game was destined not to work. It seems like no one even knew who was working on what. Every company involved in this, but I in now way lose faith in Gearbox, they made two of my favourite games, in my opinion some of the best fps in a long while.
  • I guess now we know why everything coming from Geearbox, except Borderlands, is trash. They outsource to other devs. I was always wondering why all of their games except Borderlands were shit too.
  • Just an update. I went do some further reading on that SEGA Awakens blog post, but the blog has been taken down! Conspiracy theorists, do your thing...
  • @78 Even Borderlands is kind of shit. The actual gameplay is pretty mediocre. It's fun because it plays on generic loot concepts and RPG elements that encourage replaying, as well as its co-op. I still bought the 2nd, and it's fun, but I wouldn't call it a good game unless you play with a group of friends. Gearbox has never made a game with truly good gameplay. Anyone who expected this to be good with Gearbox at the helm is just an idiot.
  • Well first I don't believe any of this if it was true, the article wouldn't be about Sega being robbed it would be about Sega suing Gearbox for there every penny and how Gearbox was being shut down and disbanded for doing this. Borderlands 2 would have made enough money to fund ACM. I really don't think Colonial Marines was as horrible as been made out to be I've played it and it felt like just another shooter nothing special or admirable about it generic but playable. But how could this game not crash and burn? I read an article last year that they where working on Colonial Marines, Borderlands 2, and that other game Brothers In Arms Furious Four all at the same time. I think they just spread their resources to thin and as a result none of the three games were or are going to be as good as they probably should have been. If they would have focused on one at a time yeah maybe it would take longer and a little more money but they would have been better. Borderlands 2 is alright but hardly a must play game. I agree with #80 no game made by Gearbox has been truly addictive or awesome just okay.
  • Also the reason Duke Nukem Forever was a game that didn't succeed because it was released in the wrong generation. If it had been released in the 90s (PS1,N64,PC) or early 2000s (PS2,Original Xbox,Gamecube,PC) then it would have done alot better. But clearly DNF was not a game that could compete with the likes of shooters of today purely because it couldn't measure up in terms of fun, gameplay, or feature set. Gearbox are not so terrible people forget that Gearbox made Half Life: Blue Shift, Decay, and Opposing Force which are part of the reason the original Half Life was regarded as such a classic.
  • @ #74 Some of us have already said goodbye to Borderlands after the three atrocious add-ons we pre-paid for. Hopefully they roll that into the case against him too and prove he embezzled all that season pass money and blew it on hookers and cocaine. Yeah I'm talking pure nonsense right now but I don't care anymore, I hate the guy.
  • @40 maybe you should look into the games ea and activision have put out, they have done their fair share of fuck ups.
  • Pitchford was a textbook snake oil salesman for this game, which wouldn't surprise me if this story was 100% true.
  • And to think all of that money could've gone towards Shenmue III...
  • @84 Yes they have released poor games, but they've never given a studio as much as sega has given Gearbox, and still released on of the worst games in history.
  • They started Aliens: Colonial Marines in 2006? oh my...
  • Either way this all sounds dirty. And Geatbox is looking real suspicious with both DNF and ACM, under their belt now.
  • @#88 actually colonial marines has been in development since early 2000's for ps2
  • "This latest development comes from someone going under the name of Bryan Danielson" yes! yes! yes! yes! (seriously, almost 100 comments and nobody made a daniel bryan joke?) at the end of the day, it sounds like this is just going to be something that means sega won't be dealing with gearbox on the future. the article says that gearbox fulfilled everything they were contractually obligated to do, so there isn't really much the two sides can do at this point. gearbox lost a massive customer, sega lost some money, lots of fans bought a (presumably) crappy game. everyone loses.
  • Ummmmmmmm dude someone already made a comment about Daneil Bryan.
  • Something along these lines must've happened-i had looked forward to this game for years and cannot say how disappoitned i was with it(already traded it in while prices were good,got LA Noire,Force UNleashed and a decent sega game in Binary Domain). Back to the subject though,within an hour of playing this game i was gutted then tried to make myself like it-unlocked a nice gun skin-i like gun skins!But skin or no skin after completing the game and all achvmnts bar one-the daft challenge one that almost made me lose my will to live i threw the towel in and after careful consideration this is one of the worst games released on the 360 and i am hugley pissed off with both Gearbox AND Sega who IMO both hold equal responsability for this train wreck-they both put their names on it and blatantly robbed us just to try and recoup some of the money spent making the game.So IF Gearbox did rob Sega then Sega in turn robbed the consumer. Overall a total,monumental cock-up of Promethean proportions!
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