The need to fund that cash cow.
Former Gearbox dev: "We only did MP-portion of Aliens!". SEGA: "NOPE"
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The need to fund that cash cow.
Feels like they were running a ponzi scheme on SEGA.
TheFLYINGManga_Ka
Member
Still bummed out about this. The Aliens franchise has so much potential. This could've been a fantastic FPS with an amazing cinematic and intense single player campaign.
Terrible.
Terrible.
Here's hoping...
FrostuTheNinja
Member
Fuck Sega suing Gearbox, the developers slandered in the process should be the ones nailing them to the wall. What a shit fest this is turning out to be.
in developement might sugest that they worked on it whole time, I wouldn't be surprised if it was on hiatus for long time since 2007. Either that or Sega loves burning money on projects that goes nowhere.
i wonder if they could track the Sega money, and see how much of it went into Borderlands 2.
Some of the responses to this baffle me. So a random forum poster claims to be ex-Gearbox employee says development was troubled and Gearbox didn't work on the single-player. Gearbox acknowledges the other studios that helped develop the game explain in rough terms how the work was split up and say that they did all the preproduction work, but also maintain their position of lead developer and continue to do PR. SEGA says that Gearbox was lead developer and that the other studios assisted with production which is standard practice, aka exactly what Randy said.
And somehow this all becomes Gearbox is trying to distance themselves from the game and at the same time SEGA is somehow preventing this by saying the exact same thing as them?also that they somehow ripped off SEGA as if SEGA wasn't fully aware what studios were involved in development on the game, SEGA was probably the one that arranged for the outsourcing to speed up development and a game turning out poorly is not grounds to sue otherwise devs would get sued every other week. The only party trying to distance Gearbox from the game is the ex-employee who has no reason do defend Gearbox.
The game is still being promoted as a Gearbox game, Randy is still tweeting about it on twitter. The game like just about every other AAA game these days had a lot of the production work outsourced to studios with a history of doing outsourcing work. And at the end of the day the game just isn't very good. Do we really need these crazy conspiracy theory's about Gearbox scamming SEGA or trying to sweep it under the rug while also promoting the game.
I guess this is why game PR usually keeps a tight lid on this kind of thing. In other words this is why we can't have nice things like developer transparency.
And somehow this all becomes Gearbox is trying to distance themselves from the game and at the same time SEGA is somehow preventing this by saying the exact same thing as them?also that they somehow ripped off SEGA as if SEGA wasn't fully aware what studios were involved in development on the game, SEGA was probably the one that arranged for the outsourcing to speed up development and a game turning out poorly is not grounds to sue otherwise devs would get sued every other week. The only party trying to distance Gearbox from the game is the ex-employee who has no reason do defend Gearbox.
The game is still being promoted as a Gearbox game, Randy is still tweeting about it on twitter. The game like just about every other AAA game these days had a lot of the production work outsourced to studios with a history of doing outsourcing work. And at the end of the day the game just isn't very good. Do we really need these crazy conspiracy theory's about Gearbox scamming SEGA or trying to sweep it under the rug while also promoting the game.
I guess this is why game PR usually keeps a tight lid on this kind of thing. In other words this is why we can't have nice things like developer transparency.
It´s pretty obvious at this point, that the whole game is a scam, there is absolutely nothing crazy about it. It was solely made to rip people off.
Wiktor
Member
Which makes me wonder why the hell have they outsourced
You really think Sega pumped moneu to Gearbox since 2007 without them meeting any milestones and whatnot?
Wiktor
Member
I would be surprised if that was the case. I mean..that's exactly how Sega got screwed with first Warhammer Online, so it would be weird if they didn't see it coming the second time.
FrostuTheNinja
Member
"There's an old saying at Sega. I know it's at Silicon Knights, probably at Sega that says, fool me once, shame on... Shame on you. Fool me... You can't get fooled again!"
NoirVisage
Banned
I don't know what you're saying but somehow that accurately represent modern Sega.
Azure Dream
Member
alexandros
Banned
Really, Gearbox? Shifting the blame elsewhere instead of acknowledging your failings? For shame.
Thanks for having at least some reasonable posts in here.
But then posts like this come again:
SkullplateMurray
Member
The game was absolutely not developed by other studios but the other studios did develop the game.
LOL
I wouldn't say Pitchford is "tweaking" about it..he's RT'd a single post in regards to the game. That's hardly "tweaking". Gearbox hasn't said a single thing in their defense, even after Sega outright said they we're the ones holding the entire ship the whole time. That sounds like pleading no contest to me. There's being reasonable and waiting for more information, and then there's turning a blind-eye to obvious problems.
But I guess there will always be a white knight somewhere...
Helped = Developed...??
But I guess there will always be a white knight somewhere...
Helped = Developed...??
Criminal Upper
Banned
As if Sega would not know what was going on, they probably okayed it.
The first clue is realizing Sega barely cares about game development anymore.
The first clue is realizing Sega barely cares about game development anymore.
SkullplateMurray
Member
Pitchford is already on the record as saying TimeGate developed a portion. It's the size of that portion which is up for debate. Denying that portion exists at all now is just silly.
I wouldn't be surprised if Sega had no idea the percentages of who made what.
alexandros
Banned
I read the post you linked to carefully and... yes, you're absolutely right. It was foolish of me to assume that the words of a random internet person actually represent Gearbox and I humbly apologize.
Wasn't denying a portion exists, and I agree. I was just confused on where you got developed from helped, as those are two completely different connotations. Sega is saying Timegate helped with Gearbox with *their* job. That's how I read that anyway.
Whether you believe Sega or not is irrelevant, the fact is Gearbox has yet to say a single thing, and for someone like Pitchford who would go on camera at every opportunity to talk about how amazing this was going to be, it is very suspect that he's all of a sudden very quiet.
Let me point out that I am not saying Gearbox intentionally screwed over Sega. I don't think they did, and frankly I don't give two ****s. I am merely referring to Gearbox employees saying Timegate handled Single player while Sega says the contrary. If would be awful if Gearbox was throwing Timegate under the bus for something that was their fault.
Catchpenny
Member
I'm sure Sega knew about it, but they might not have known the extent of it. Or maybe they do know and just wanna give the FU to Gearbox. Gearbox was in a very different position when they took this job, pre-Borderlands. Don't forget that 2K also dumped Duke Nukem into their lap, a job Gearbox likely couldn't say no to. At that point the priorities look like this:
1) borderlands 2 borderlands 2 borderlands 2
2) let's get duke nukem out the door so 2K will give us money for borderlands 2
3) hey, brothers in arms isn't doing so hot anymore, but it's ours and people sure liked that inglorious basterds movie
4) shit, we still gotta do aliens. we're barely out of preproduction and sega is running out of patience.
So you outsource most of the content creation to other studios, and put a small group of your guys on making maps and balancing MP. Then you drag things out with Sega and hit enough milestones that they keep cutting checks.
I don't think Gearbox screwed Sega over in some machiavellian scheme. I do think Colonial Marines would have turned out better if Randy had made it a high priority.
TheVampire
Banned
Before Colonial Marines was cancelled in 2008, they already had some outsourcing. When the game was restarted in mid-2009, they had to re-build the team for the game. Sega knew pretty well which parts were outsourced and what the extent of internal development was. No matter what, Gearbox was responsible for the general supervision and creative vision of the project.
And a Timegate employee about the first mission:
ChosenPredator
Banned
gearbox where everyone else franchise goes to die except for borderlands
It almost seems like they're trying to send a message with all the bad outsourced games they make.
IdreamofHIME
Member
The campaigns pacing, level design and the general controls feel so much like Duke Nukem Forever, that I believe Gearbox had a bigger hand in both than many actually think.
So they killed Half-Life with the expansion packs for 1, killed Halo with a PC port of the first game and killed Duke Nukem by buying IP after 3D Realms died after trying to make one game for 12 years.
Wow if that is what you call death more franchises should die at their hands.
Before Colonial Marines was cancelled in 2008, they already had some outsourcing. When the game was restarted in mid-2009, they had to re-build the team for the game. Sega knew pretty well which parts were outsourced and what the extent of internal development was. No matter what, Gearbox was responsible for the general supervision and creative vision of the project.
And a Timegate employee about the first mission:
One person was pretty much responsible for the entirety of the first mission?
ShinobiFist
Banned
This is Bayonetta all over again, lol.
Robot Pants
Member
I bet Bayonetta 2 is looking awful good to SEGA now....
Not really. People liked Bayonetta, and Sega copped it without much complaint.
Gearbox didn't make any of that in DNF. So you might want to rethink that.
IdreamofHIME
Member
That's what I'm saying, I don't believe that story either. Playing CM and the only comparable game is DNF.
Nah, he was just deeply involved in the creation of the mission.
Danne-Danger
Member
Really poor form to blame TimeGate, at least they have a couple of great recent FPS games under their belt. Anyone who saw the old Pitchford hype videos could smell gearbox's influence from a mile away, he seemed pretty hyped for it then!
And SEGA dropped Obsidian's Aliens RPG for this... tsk tsk.
And SEGA dropped Obsidian's Aliens RPG for this... tsk tsk.
Kydd BlaZe
Member
Probably one of the more sensible posts in this thread.
I honestly think that this is exactly what happened during the development process for Colonial Marines. Gearbox had like 4 different projects going on all at once, and seemingly had the bulk of their focus on Borderlands 2. They were spreading themselves too thin, and perhaps bit off a bit more than they could chew. Sega more than likely brought in Nerve Software and TimeGate Studios to speed things up as Gearbox couldn't get the game out of the door. Thus, with all of these studios in the mix sort of rushing to get the game to store shelves, it turned out to be a mess.
ShinobiFist
Banned
It just reminds me of the whole PS3 situation.
scytheavatar
Member
They saved Duke Nukem Forever because they were big fans of the franchise and didn't want to see the years of effort put into the game go to waste. The game was 90% completed by the time they rescued it IIRC, and the game ended up being profitable so it wasn't that bad of an investment.
As for Aliens most people here seem to think that Gearbox took Sega for a ride and used money on the game to develop Borderlands 2 instead. The damage Gearbox took to their reputation over Aliens is probably made up by the success of Borderlands 2, so I doubt Gearbox minds much as long as Sega doesn't sue their ass off.
Randy Pitchford and Brian Martel (2 of the founders of gearbox) worked on Duke Nukem Forever at 3D Realms before they founded Gearbox. And a bunch of their employees had also worked with or at 3D Realms and they picked up some of the Triptych Games team that were working on the game as well. So yea they had a lot of history with the franchise and the game it's self. They only worked on it for about 8 months with a small team mostly just collecting all the assets together and final "polish" from the sound of things (they said several times they didn't want to mess with the game and wanted to put out the game that was already made) and they outsourced the console ports and multiplayer maps to Piranha Games (to keep things on topic lol).