What appears to be the first gameplay footage from the Aliens: Crucible RPG game has leaked onto YouTube. Now, the game was officially cancelled last year so this footage is supposedly from an early build of the game dated 2007. The footage lasts for almost two minutes and shows the player wondering through a corridor and him and two other Marines are being attacked by aliens.

EDIT: Additionally more in-game screenshots of an early build of Crucible have been posted up on the Obsidian forums. They’re pretty cool. Thanks to funcroc for the link.

This isn’t really surprising given the fact we’ve seen hardly anything about the Aliens RPG other than some leaked concept arts. Though today, the rumours have been confirmed by Obsidian and Sega. Aliens Crucible has been cancelled. The news can be found on Giant Bomb and Kotaku. Here’s Sega’s statement:

“At this point, SEGA has no plans to move forward with the Aliens RPG. The Aliens franchise offers us so much content to choose from that we feel it important to take a step back and carefully consider the type of game we want to release. We plan to continue working with the Aliens franchise and ask fans to be patient and stay tuned for more information about what SEGA has coming out for the Aliens series of games, starting with the upcoming Alien vs. Predator game. We are very excited about and focused on Alien vs. Predator, which promises gamers a fantastic single player game and an equally compelling multiplayer experience. We are confident that it provides all the excitement and fun that the Aliens and Predator fans are looking for!”

It’s a shame we never got to see how far they got with it or even why the game was cancelled. Aliens Colonial Marines is supposedly still in development. Thanks to funcroc and Mr. Domino for the news.

Some interesting renders have recently found their way onto the internet in the way of J.E Sawyer, the lead developer on Crucible:

You might find they look extremely similar to artwork from Crucible discovered last month. In particular, the armor and the black character. Thanks once again to Pythagoras for the news.

So now the game might be meeting it’s end, we’re finding more and more about it. The RPG has a name: Crucible and courtesy of Michael Zimmerman, we now have our first looks at what would have (might be) been:

You’ll find more on his website (or our forums). You’ll notice some of the colony and interiors have an Alien Res look about them, but they’ve tried to adapt the blues of Alien/s. Big thanks for funcroc for discovering these.

And as the days go on, Sega remains quiet but everyone else is shouting. AvPGalaxy visitor Kyle recently uncovered the blog of an ex-designer for Obsidian, with the “cancelled Aliens RPG” on his resume:

“April 2008 ”” February 2009 (11 months)
Designer for canceled third-person action Aliens RPG (Xbox 360, PS3, & PC)”

David Kondor’s blog also lists his roles while working on the game. Still nothing official. Thanks again to Kyle for the news.

Following in the wake of the announcement of a new AvP game from Rebellion under Sega, we have this to report:

“Sources tell Kotaku that Sega has pulled the plug on their upcoming Aliens Roleplaying Game under development by California-based developer Obsidian.”

Gaming website Kotaku is citing a recent sacking of 20 people at Obsidian as one of the reasons behind this. And there is, of course, the recent news that Colonial Marines and this RPG have had their release pushed back until early 2011 at the least. I’m currently waiting for comment on the news from Sega. Thanks to Xenomrph for the news.

You can keep track of all the developments on this thread in our forums.

EDIT: Joystiq is also reporting that Sega has withdrawn funds from Colonial Marines too: “As for Gearbox, Sega supposedly stopped paying the developer for “a while” to produce Colonial Marines and it has since ceased production on the title.”

EDIT 2: Gamespot is now stating that the RPG has been “indefinitely suspended” and comes with a quote from Sega: “We will have more news to share about our Aliens franchise games in the near future,” said the rep. “Sega does not comment on rumors or speculation about its products… Please stay tuned for future correspondence regarding our products.”

Now this is a cracking find by forum member XenoVC. He stumbled across these two pictures on DeviantART in the profile of an Obsidian employee:

Now if you look closely at this picture of an Obsidian office you can just see the title screen for the RPG. And looks like Xeno uncovered the original version of it. Plus this artwork which is apparently the plain version of the menu interface. And here is the artist responsible.

This isn’t much but Obsidian is advertising the position of Senior Engine Programmer for their upcoming Aliens RPG project and they’ve released these little details regarding the game:

“3rd Person, GAME ENGINE, R&D / New Technology, RPG, Sci-Fi, Squad Based”

For the more educated, the page also talks more about the language the game will be using but for us, its the quote above. I think the most interesting is that the game will be squad based. For those interested, you can view the page here. Thanks to Sh0dan for the heads up.

Obsidian developer, J.E. Sawyer, has been talking with fans over at the Obsidian forum. There he’s been releasing little tidbits of information:

“One thing that I want to state is that while this game needs to have things that make it recognizably an RPG, I think there are some RPG conventions that would feel/seem really corny in the relatively realistic Alien setting.

Anyway, I do think there are ways to approach item creation or upgrading in a way that seems plausible and fitting for the setting without feeling like RPG Convention #12.”

It would seem that Obsidian is putting a lot of thought and detail into this upcoming game. I’m getting rather excited about the franchise’s future.

Alien RPG developers, Obsidian, recently took a trip to ADI studios. They didn’t specifically state what they went for but the chances are they went to get some inspiration for their upcoming game:

“Yesterday Trent Campbell and I went to visit ADI, a visual effects studio that was heavily involved with the production of Alien3, Alien: Resurrection, and AvP. We snapped some kewl pics in their display room. Click for LARGO versions. Special thanks to Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis at ADI for the tour and permission to post these suckaz online.”

You can check out more of their impressive images on the Obsidian forums.