After nearly 2 years of negotiations and approvals that started in December 2017, Disney officially became the owners 20th Century Fox as of March 2019. Since then Disney has been sorting out all its new assets, such as re-branding to 20th Century Studios and selling Cold Iron Studios – we still don’t know how that effects the Alien game they’ve been working on. According to Cliff Bleszinski, a different Alien game was also a victim of the Disney deal.
Bleszinski, who is well known as his role of design director for Epic Games, and co-founder of Boss Key Productions, revealed on Twitter (via Happy Gamer) that his previous studio had actually been in talks to develop a new Aliens shooter that would have served as an alternate sequel to Aliens focusing on an adult Newt!
Before BKP shut down we were in talks to do a new game in the Aliens franchise with Fox. Then Disney bought them and that got lost in the shuffle, darnit. Ripley would be alive and be your “Cortana/Anya.” You’d play as grown Newt. On Earth. Weyland-Yutani are weaponizing the aliens in a Black Mesa style facility and, of course, all hell breaks loose. Your robotic pal i.e. Bishop? A new one named “Casey” after her doll in Aliens.
A panel from Aliens: Book Two (aka Nightmare Asylum) where Hicks and an adult Newt escape an Alien’s acid damage.
Boss Key Productions (aka BKP) shut down in May 2018, while the Disney/Fox merger was still taking place, following the commercial failures of LawBreakers and Radical Heights. How do you feel about the possibility of a game focused around Newt? Sound off in the comments section below!
Thanks to David’s Creation for the tip! Keep a close eye on Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest on Alien and Predator gaming! You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien and Predator fans on our forums!
As for continuity and canon overall, I simply believe with respect to the individual franchises themselves, what's "canon" to Alien only affects it, what's "canon" to Predator only affects it, yet if under AVP's canon and continuity something comes into conflict with information from one stating one thing and one stating another, I personally believe the newest information takes precedence, as such a rule set's proved reliable before.
Precisement.
Unless you go strictly films, at this point with the Alien EU you have to.
Take Predator. It was confirmed on screen and by cast members in The Predator that all six films were canon: 4 Predators, 2 AVPs, all canon. Clean and neat.
But on the Alien side, Prometheus retcons out AvP and the Predator creature, only to rope AvP and the Predator creature back into Alien EU canon per the Weyland-Yutani Report via Fire and Stone and subsequent stories. Of course, adding anything Predator related in Alien EU is canon to the first 1987 Predator film, which is subsequently canon to the AvP films, ultimately snapping the AvP films back into the Alien EU canon.
So as you can see...
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Attempting to retcon the movies does result in a lot of garbage - but also some great stuff. Just like adding new things often results in garbage, or great stuff. It's almost like the retcon aspect isn't the fundamental issue.
Nobody goes to hell or jail if you refuse to believe some established or altered timeline in a fictional universe.
These things depend on how credibly they're told.
But again, it's not alteration of anything in Aliens or Alien³ or indeed Alien.
It's addition, just as the idea of Ripley having a kid's one.
Because nothing contradicts such ideas in Aliens or Alien³ anyway.
It's addition, not alteration.
The continuity is changed.
Retroactively.
Like a ... Retcon or something.
Yeah, I still don't buy that rumor/theory scoop.
The film got butchered in the editing bay. Neither of the endings had been intended but had been made anyways due to a mixture of cuts, test-screening reactions, and making something so weird it would immediately get cut for the lesser evil. An Iron-Predator is a lot less crazy than someone from the future being in the pod.
The Predator is text-book example of how Fox needed to f**k off on the series because for as bad as the initial script got, any and all attempts at fixing it just made the problem worse and cost them money.
I'm guessing the Alien game is going to be quietly cancelled / forgotten about now that Fox doesn't have much of a stake in it, and that Fox itself will be sold off because current Disney leadership doesn't understand the concept of alternative labels under umbrella companies. It'll happen, as stupid as it sounds, mark my words.
Just hoping that Hunting Grounds is a least passable as the final thing we get to play for the next decade outside of further inevitable mobile tie-ins.
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(And as opposed as I am to retcons and non-canon what-if stories, I completely would have bought a copy of this game.)
Makes more sense than the alternate ending for The Predator with Newt.
Just hope that the Cold Iron one is not cancelled.
Every time it comes up, I agree with the suggestion to move away from old characters. Zula proved you can make interesting new characters. Let's keep that up.
I'll always be disappointed about missing out on new games though.
characters not directly from one of the movies or direct relatives of them (like Amanda). Weyland relatives I'd say are fine though since its kind of a "must".
It's a big universe, let some new people get terrorized/be the focus.
I thought they were going with a Newt during Hadley's type of scenario which would've been alright as an Isolation dlc. I'd play it, the same way my dumbass bought Colonial Marines, but I have a feeling I'd be just as disappointed.
Movie characters? As in previous characters in movies i.e. Ripley, Newt, David, Peter Weyland, etc. and everyone related to them?
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