Aliens: Colonial Marines Falsely Advertised - "If companies like Sega and Gearbox promise their customers one thing but deliver something else, then they should be held accountable for that decision"

Aliens: Colonial Marines

In 2013, Sega and Gearbox faced a lawsuit filed in California claiming they falsely advertised Aliens: Colonial Marines because the finished product did not reflect what was shown in their trade show demos. According to the suit, the embargo on review copies was lifted on the morning of the game’s release. Due to the embargo, people who bought the game early would be unaware of the differences. The suit was seeking damages for those who bought the game on release day or before.

The claim states, "each of the 'actual gameplay' demonstrations purported to show consumers exactly what they would be buying: a cutting edge video game with very specific features and qualities. Unfortunately for their fans, defendants never told anyone — consumers, industry critics, reviewers, or reporters — that their 'actual gameplay' demonstration advertising campaign bore little resemblance to the retail product that would eventually be sold to a large community of unwitting purchasers."

In response to the class-action lawsuit, Gearbox stated, “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.” Gearbox argued it shouldn’t be included in the suit because it is a software developer, and they had nothing to do with the marketing and publishing of the game.

In 2014, Sega denied any wrongdoing but reached a tentative agreement for $1.25 million. Sega claimed Gearbox had equally participated in marketing the game and even overstepped their boundaries in promotional decisions. In 2015, the plaintiffs agreed to have Gearbox dropped from the suit. The judge ruled the suit against Sega still stood but would no longer be a class-action suit.

During the development of Aliens: Colonial Marines (A:CM), Gearbox released Borderlands and it was a surprise hit. Gearbox began working on Borderlands 2 and outsourced the majority of development on A:CM to a different developer, TimeGate.

Promising, but no

According to TimeGate, Gearbox had made little progress on A:CM between 2007 and 2010. Other sources also claimed Gearbox never prioritized development on A:CM, instead they chose to work on Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and Duke Nukem Forever. They also addressed the concerns over the game demos, stating they were told by Gearbox to just make them awesome as they would be running on high-end computers. One source told Kotaku, “the game feels like it was made in nine months, and that's because it was.”

Aliens: Colonial Marines was a personal disappointment. I enjoyed Borderlands and had hoped Gearbox would deliver the same experience with A:CM. Gearbox released a great cooperative experience with Borderlands and they could have done the same with A:CM. It was Borderland’s success that lead to the downfall of A:CM. Thankfully, Sega released another game based on the Aliens franchise with a new developer and faced no controversies. In 2014, developer Creative Assembly delivered Alien: Isolation with positive reviews.

“Game over man, game over”