There’s another new article on the troubled development of Aliens Colonial Marines over on Destructoid. It appears they’ve spoken to an ex-developer of Gearbox who has shed some more light on the recent rumours. Gearbox reportedly took people off ACM to work on Borderlands and at one point, Sega decided to cut their losses with the game, which I believe was around the same time AvP was first announced.
“Gearbox was taking people off the project to put them on Borderlands 1,” he says of his time on the job. “This was before the big art style change happened on Borderlands. Our team was getting smaller by the month, making it very difficult to get the game made. Ironically several of the team members were ex-3D Realms people who were saying [paraphrasing] ‘Finally, we’re going to Gearbox to make Aliens, and we’re going to ship a fucking game!’ Hah.”
According to our man with the inside track, it was later learned that SEGA actually canceled Colonial Marines, deciding to cut its losses after such a long development cycle.
“At some point in 2008, SEGA temporarily pulled the plug on the game,” he said. “They caught wind of Gearbox shifting resources (despite still collecting milestone checks as if the team were full size) and lying to SEGA AND 2K about the number of people working on each project. This led to the round of layoffs at Gearbox in late 2008.”
The developer confirms he later spoke with people attached to the project at the beginning of 2012, and learned they actually didn’t expect the game to ship in February, given its current state. It would appear staff on the game knew the thing was a bust, and were prepared for a fresh delay. Obviously, that never happened, and now we’re here.
Thanks to ikarop for the tip.
Jesus...
Screw dumb masses that buy the same shit. COD only worsens gaming market, leading the second gaming crash. I wouldn't hate that franchise if it weren't for its shitty influence on other games.
http://kotaku.com/5986694/from-dream-to-disaster-the-story-of-aliens-colonial-marines
...but it's full of interesting bits like this:
And this gem here:
Sad sad. Are they just never going to say anything to anyone about it?
They are? I've seen a metric shit-tonne of people complaining about it.
The Gearbox forums are just a psychotic shit show of poorly-spelled adoration for the game. It's like a troll invasion, or some heinous nightmare, or both. I don't understand how anyone over there can take themselves seriously after this.
I would hope most forums are a variant of our own, which I think is a nice mix of healthy anger and lots of discussion. I don't see anyone attacked for liking the game, because they explain themselves accordingly and don't try and sugar-coat the entire game through their opinion, but I also don't see people abiding this garbage. I'm very happy that people are staying mad. They definitely should be.
and I agree with you, Bounds. I truly wish there were some consequences for the blatant lies they've spun for so long.
Lotta people feeling the same way. The best way to stick it to GBX is to not let anyone forget about it... Boycott if you feel that passionate or AT LEAST wait a couple weeks whenever a Gearbox game releases to stick it to em. Bout 800,000 people who wait a couple weeks damages a company in an unbelievable way. Thats about how many people got shafted with this one so dont forget about it.
More "official" forums are doing everything possible to prevent people from talking about how awful this game is or how much of a group of bastards GBX and co. are so be clever and subtle about it but dont be quiet. They need you to be quiet and forget about it.
Layoffs will keep coming and eventually people will speak up. Use every opportunity you can to use Sega GBX or anyone else you feel is at fault as an example of whats wrong with games and the franchise. Id sign a joke petition to have Randy Pitchford deported
The Sega facebook page is a good example of thousands of real people bringin the hate. Keep bringin it.
I don't see petitions or anything being of any help, since those that worked on the game are probably under NDAs and cannot talk about it without legal repercussions or losing their jobs. I'd love for Randy to come out and speak, but he's their head PR man and doing that would wind up being a nightmare. I guess one hope is that if he goes into a legal battle with Sega, the court might force documents to be released that could give insight into what happened. I'd sure love those.
And it's pretty easy to write this off as not canon considering that it completely breaks canon.
I think it's worse than that, Shadow... SEGA and Gearbox signed a contract and SEGA gave them 50 million to do it... Gearbox dragged it's feet and by 2008, SEGA wanted to pull the plug on it... Gearbox eventually convinced them and at the same time, outsourced the whole SP campaign, a vital piece of the game, to a nobody company, TimeGate, resulting in a game that looks like it didn't cost more than 3 mil...So, my question is: what happened to the remaining 47 million?!?! THAT is what SEGA should scrutinise and I think Randy and crew could be facing criminal charges for embezzlement of funds, false advertising, and also, if it is proven that BORDERLANDS was indeed made with SEGA's money, a share of the profits of both BORDERLANDS 1 and 2 are in order for SEGA! Because without BORDERLANDS, there wouldn't be BORDERLANDS 2!
Unless SEGA is a naive company, a company with so many years of experience, they should be suing Gearbox for all those crimes! Because we can easily SEE in the game where all that money went to! There is no way they spent 50 million on that piece of crap game! No way!
I think what has upset me the most is that Randy/Gearbox have made no attempt at all really to try and smooth things over with the fans. I know we'll never realistically get it, but an apology or even just a explanation of what really happened to the making of this game. Something must be done. We must not allow Gearbox and Randy Pukeface to get away with this travesty.
I would like to open the floor of what we as a community (grant it we might be small in number), but what we can do to stick it to "The Company." A petition to demand what really happened to the making of this game. Or hell, even a petition for Fox to throw this out as cannon -ahem example: Alien Resurrection, ahem-
I dont know......sigh.......I guess I fell powerless and taken advantage of. I just want some justice. Sorry for the rant.
While searching for news, I came upon this five part series from Machinima - "From the Atari 2600 to Colonial Marines" - wich puts the development story in a wider historical context.
Final episode is yet to be released.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8dbZGDOmCA#ws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heubQ9pqvCM#ws
How can you do that to your own products? The man must have zero artistic integrity. I'm beginning to think they just got lucky with Borderlands, maybe helped out through using money from other projects!
You're wasting your money buying DLC for this game when in one more or two months time no one will be playing this game online for you to ultilize your paid DLC with. You're better off buying The orginal AVP for 5 bucks and playing with people on there.
By trying to support the game and acknowledging its problems, they both do something to repair their reputation and keep what players are left playing longer. They also show future business partners that they aren't in to flagrantly burning their entire customer base by spitting years worth of lies before releasing a crap product.
Let me call my lawyer and see if that's an advisable route to take...
They have to release what DLC was promised because people prebought it, but I don't think it'll do any good.
Seeing this game fail and fall apart into a crazy conspiracy war over what happened during production is more fun than the actual game.
I'm having what Raging is having, please!
After all of their bullshit, they should've seen this coming. I mean, even with the popularity of mp these days, and the longevity it can bring to games, A:CM was sold on the story, the atmosphere, and replaying something close to Aliens. Even though the mp component was strong, and still has quite a few players on consoles at least, they haven't been supporting it at all.
Their behavior, be it restricted by legal issues or whatever, has shown the community that they don't care enough to try and save the game when the time is right to try something like that. All it would've taken would be a simple "we are working hard on a patch, please bear with us" or something.
This is just embarrassing, and confirms what the angry community has said about a bait and switch.
The problem with this game, is that it was made.
The problem with this game is that neither GBX or Sega stuck to a plan.
This graph also tells the same sad story. Peaks are now under 1000 players and the lows are around 300. They probably go higher during the weekends but still, the average player count is in steady decline.
I'm still keeping my hopes up that DLC might give the game more enjoyable qualities, just gotta hope that GBX and Sega stick to the plan.
http://store.steampowered.com/stats/?l=english
Very close to the truth. I can't see A:CM on the list any more, which means that today THERE WAS LESS THAN 500 PLAYERS WORLDWIDE ON PC FOR A:CM. Game might as well be dead, MP DLC makes 0 sense now, who is going to buy it? It might be a bit more popular on consoles, but I doubt it.
No, the DLC if anything will hurt the game more and split up the community to those who do not want the mappacks and those who have got them. Imagine that the game had 100 players. Then 50 buy the mappacks and 50 dont. You'll only be playing with 50 or so people when you buy the dlc. You dont make DLC or addons for a game that so few people play have/play to begin with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcUWG23hqvw#ws
Indeed!
Corporate douchebaggery bullshit galore
Fox wouldn't be able to find a whore in a whorehouse, much less build their own game engine! They could do it, but they would have to do a lot of catch-up to be on the same battle ground as the more experienced brands, such as Crytek, Valve, Epic, etc...
Thats sexy. Bet it didnt take em 6 years to get the mood down either...
Ya know, Fox oughta develop an Aliens engine, no game just a crap ton of tools and flexibility and sell it. Then they can C&D people using it for non-Aliens games and let the fans go wild.
THIS!!
FOX have nearly killed this franchise off completely
That mod looked incredible, but if he got a letter, and he's smart, he will follow their request and not continue development. At the very least if he chooses to do so it will be done very quietly. Companies do not fool around. When they send you a C&D, they mean it.
FOX should be commending him, not admonish him! And by the way, this game should be free by now! Free to be modded!
And FOX sending him a CEASE AND DESIST for a game this old, to a guy who is not even looking to profit from this, is just another demonstration of the pathetic company they are!
I hope he will continue to do it, just for fun! AND if he is as pissed as I am at FOX, he should! That company never ceases to amaze me at how low they can get! A C&D for a game this old, for a guy who is doing this because he wants people to have fun and not looking for a profit...!
Dave, if you are reading this, you are to be commended! You did a fantastic job and if you did this all by yourself, you should be at Crytek, man!
I would love for Crytek (game) and Warner (movies) to approach FOX and buy this franchise off and away from FOX's idiotic hands! That is the only way I can envision to indulge in the possibility of EVER having good Alien movies and games!
I was just wondering, Dave made a fatal mistake: he should have kept it under wraps until it was finished! Otherwise, all that fine work for nothing! At least, we got a great video out of it showing how formidable AVP looks under the Cryengine 3! Uau!
i still can't believe Hemi got his AKF through them.
In the meantime, I cam across this piece of work! It even made PC GAMER! I don't know if it was posted before, but If it was, I apologise... I am just mind-blown to see my fave AVP game looking like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7m5cRX3q2M#ws
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/11/09/aliens-vs-marines-mod-crysis-2/
OMG... I want it, I want it!
downloaditThanks, Raging... If only I could find the darned CDs... Think... Think...
http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=47578.0
The more players, the better! The mp in that game was sooo much fun. I'm ecstatic to see it still going. The truly great games never die.
Actually, I am writing you this on a break from an extensive search after my AVP 1 and AVP 2 CDs and I AM FREAKING OUT! Too bad the multiplayer in AVP2 is no longer active... Or is it?
Now, if only there was a MOD who could use a FAR CRY 2 editor or an UNREAL 3 editor to redo the whole game in all its glory! OK, more realistically, just have a MOD to AVP2 that could make the graphics look better and with shaders in them to add sliminess, that would be great! Now, if you'll excuse me, Raging, I must resume 'my very rigid search' for the AVP game classics! See ya in a bit...
I think they were scary in both. The ones in AvP 99 were totally evil, with that lightning-speed screaming facehug. I remember the second ones being about as fast too... from parts like the lab where you release them all, or if you ever played a multiplayer match with lifecycle (the moment of true AvP glory) the huggers were very fast and almost impossible to dodge.
I had a very easy time hugging marines in lifecycle mp.
Aye. The game had a wonderfully realized setting. A real work of love
Shame about the development process :/
by the way.. there are papercraft models of the AVP2 Alien warrior, runner and egg
http://noturnosukhoi.blogspot.pt/2011/12/alien-runner-16.html
At least, the first one had darkness and scary facehuggers... I remember dreading to play that level where you come out of the APC and then you know that at the bottom, you had a barely visible facehugger that almost gave me a heart attack EVERY SINGLE time it jumped at my face! Seriously, I only got to the ending of that game ONCE! I kid you not! Up until this day, that was the only time I ever screamed in a game! HAHAHAH
Well, not quite! Just until I got attacked by the alligators in FAR CRY 3!
Boy, did I jump out of my skin on that one!
In AVP2, they lacked that...the scariness... The hugger was weak, the levels lacked the atmosphere, and the story was pretty boring! I prefer the first one definitely over the second one!
Also, AVP HAD A STORY?!?!? Really?! I thought it was just random levels with just a silly guy on a screen giving us background and missions (actually, just 'pull the lever' and stuff like that)! HAHAHA
It makes me wonder what they could do with that story in this day and age now that Prometheus has shed some light on the engineers. Prometheus certainly wasn't my favorite film but I can't help but think what would've happened if you added in aspects like the black goo to the storyline as well.