ACM & Canon

[NUB DESTROYER]

With 20th Century Fox's approval of the Gearbox team creating an official storyline that takes place post Alien3, what issues do you think (or hope) they will address and answer in the game?

The biggest one I can come up with is the issue of how the egg got on board the Sulaco in Alien3. This in particular needs to be addressed because it was just a blatant plot hole.

There are many ways to approach this in the game. One way is to have a marine check the Sulaco computer logs and get a more concise detailed reading than what Bishop barely managed to utter to Ripley in Alien3. And voila... the 20 year old mystery solved.

[Ash 937]

A:CM will not be canon.  What is considered canon is exclusive to the films only.  Otherwise, we would have to consider all the literature, comics, and other video games that already exist for the franchise and that would just be huge mess.  All Alien-related things that are sold commercially need to be licensed from FOX too, not just A:CM, so the fact that this game was given "approval" by FOX doesn't really mean anything significant at all.

I'm going to try to enjoy the game for what it is.  It will be fun to see if/how the GBX team addresses some of the questions about the original trilogy but in the end it's just their interpretation on a few things and not part of the definitive canon.

[Ghostface]

A:CM will not be canon.  What is considered canon is exclusive to the films only.  Otherwise, we would have to consider all the literature, comics, and other video games that already exist for the franchise and that would just be huge mess.  All Alien-related things that are sold commercially need to be licensed from FOX too, not just A:CM, so the fact that this game was given "approval" by FOX doesn't really mean anything significant at all.

I'm going to try to enjoy the game for what it is.  It will be fun to see if/how the GBX team addresses some of the questions about the original trilogy but in the end it's just their interpretation on a few things and not part of the definitive canon.

Gearbox stated that Fox doesn't consider anything else canon, but are considering making this game's story canon. As fans we can just take it or leave it.

[NUB DESTROYER]

According to Gearbox, it is canon.  I'm sure you read/seen these already, but here's my citation

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/08/25/aliens-colonial-marines-qa-not-bad-for-a-human/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhAOJrKroqI#ws   (0:35 mark)

I doubt Fox will issue a press release saying anything about the matter because they just don't care enough. But even if they did, I'm sure there will be some anal fans who won't consider this canon. And this is fine.

[ikarop]

Actually this whole Fox & canon thing was done before with AvP2010. The press simply has given it more attention this time which is good for the game as it sort of works as a marketing strategy. But that's it. Marketing. In the end it's up to fans to decide what's canon and what's not.

[NUB DESTROYER]

Okiedokie so that's out of the way. What story elements from the movies do you want to see resolved in the game?

[Stalker]

Personally I only consider sources that stay true to the original films as canon. Certain games like AvP 2 & AvP 2010 did this well, & it looks like Colonial Marines will too, therefore they are in my eyes a worthy part of the timeline.

Ok, the AvP films sort of messed up a bit, but not to the point where they can be totally dismissed.

[Xenomrph]

A:CM will not be canon.  What is considered canon is exclusive to the films only.  Otherwise, we would have to consider all the literature, comics, and other video games that already exist for the franchise and that would just be huge mess.  All Alien-related things that are sold commercially need to be licensed from FOX too, not just A:CM, so the fact that this game was given "approval" by FOX doesn't really mean anything significant at all.

This isn't entirely accurate - FOX actually does consider the EU stuff to be canon and have done so for years. I've got a whole bunch of quotes and citations for it.

The fans can obviously still decide what they consider canon for themselves, though.

[PsyKore]

This game might be considered more true to the canon by Fox, or more significant, because it links directly to the films and their settings, where as other games didn't. Other games were separate events with occasional references to the movies, but Aliens:CM is wedging itself in the actual movies timeline, so that's probably why it's garnering more attention about it.

It'll be interesting to see what Gearbox do, though. Explaining the egg on the Sulaco would be easy to do with this game, but it'll be interesting to see how they explain why Hadley's Hope isn't a crater.

[NUB DESTROYER]

This game might be considered more true to the canon by Fox

I think Fox is oblivious to the word "canon".  Anyway as I said above, Gearbox said Fox gave them the go-ahead to create a canon storyline. And Fox (according to the other posters above) has a history of approving such and such to be canon for various reasons.

The only thing that can negate ACM's storyline is if a movie comes out to contradict it. Or maybe another Alien game that's set at the same time contradicts ACM. But what are the chances of Alien 3.5 or another game similar to this will be made?   

see how they explain why Hadley's Hope isn't a crater.

It wasn't an airborne detonation according to Gearbox. From this, you can deduce that the distance between the Atmospheric Processor and HH was too great.   

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/10/aliens-colonial-marines-preview-game-not-over-man/

[SpreadEagleBeagle]

Most of the time FOX people talk out of their asses when it comes to canon since they most of the time don't care whether the different media, stories and continuities conflict and clash with each other. This time however it seems like they actually put some thought into it and for once showed the Alien franchise some love as they have plotted out a storyline etc. that hopefully will fit like a glove together with the already established Alien movies canon. It's not the same old Kenner Aliens, Superman vs. Aliens, AVP and Herk Mondo EU stuff we're all used to -  this time it seems like they're serious about implementing a non-movie source into the Alien canon.

Personally, however, I will never accept anything else as Alien canon other than the original four Alien movies (depending on how Prometheus plays I may or may not include it with the quadrology).

[Ash 937]

Yeah, I don't think FOX has traditionally given too much thought into the integrity of the Alien series.  It's been pimped out shamelessly in comics and film (AvP series).

In the case of A:CM, I think there is a small base of dedicated fans of the original series who fortunately fell into this project with a lot of resources to develop the game into something authentic.  To be honest, I think that FOX still doesn't care about that but they do recognize the potential to make some money out of company like GBX who has a pretty solid reputation for making above-average games.

Regardless of all of this, A:CM will still be just another game that uses the franchise.  It won't be regarded as canon by me at all.  That's just the way I look at it. 

[Chris!(($$))!]

What if you like it's story?
If I enjoy the game and find that the story fits in as nicely as can be done with the other movies I will consider it canon.

[NUB DESTROYER]

What if you like it's story?

Then by all means.

I hate Alien Resurrection and so I dont consider it canon at all. Film is not the end all to what canon is or isnt to me. Even filmmakers have a hard time figuring out what canon is their own movies (George Lucas). The Alien franchise is not above this rule.

[The Xenoborg]

I consider, almost everything from the EU to the films, canon.
There's so much talent and so many ideas in EU that actually stand out, and I feel bad if the same is ignored.