14 DAY TRIAL // The Aliens: Colonial Marines saga continues, as this time it seems that Sega, the game's publisher, has gone on the offensive against Gearbox Software, the main developer of the old first-person shooter, accusing it of marketing the title and promoting it beyond its actual quality.
Aliens: Colonial Marines was eagerly awaited by millions of fans from around the world, as many looked forward to the Gearbox Software-made shooter, especially considering the studio's success with the Borderlands series, as well as the lengthy development process of the actual title.
The result, however, was an overwhelming letdown, with many fans feeling betrayed by the low quality of the shooter, its many glitches, not to mention the stark contrast between the actual game and the demonstrations made by Gearbox and Sega at different trade shows and through various promotional videos.
Some fans even took things further and sued both Sega and Gearbox for false advertising. Sega reached an agreement with plaintiffs in such a lawsuit this August, but Gearbox declined such a thing, claiming that Sega is the only one responsible for marketing the game and making it look much better than it actually was.
Now, Sega is striking back, according to Polygon, as it's filed new documents, including internal emails, about the actual development process and how Gearbox wanted to verify any piece of marketing made about Aliens: Colonial Marines.
"The parties had to mutually agree to the 'precise particulars of marketing assets' delivered by Gearbox," the document stated. "Gearbox's participation — Randy Pitchford's, in particular — was a key element in the Aliens: Colonial Marines marketing strategy from the beginning."
Gearbox, starting with its President and CEO, Randy Pitchford, apparently assured Sega that Aliens: Colonial Marines would reach the quality standard set by the E3 2011 demonstration held at the large event.
"During one of my conversations with Gearbox today I verified that the E3 Demo is indeed the bar that we should use to determine where the entire game will be," Matt Powers, senior producer at Sega of America, wrote to a handful of other Sega employees via email. "That is Gearbox's plan and what they believe in. I just wanted to double-check with them and since I did I figured I would pass that along to you."
However, the marketing soon went off the rails, with Gearbox employees, including Pitchford in particular, spilling way more details than agreed upon during different press panels about Aliens: Colonial Marines.
"I spoke face to face to [Gearbox's Steve] Gibson about their persistent panel leaking," Sega's Matt Eyre wrote in an email to other officials. "Effectively — it's Randy [Pitchford] doing whatever the [expletive] he likes. Apparently he did it twice on [Borderlands 2] also, against, against all plans and despite the fact they asked him not to. I think our best result here is that we have no more panel sessions."
As of yet, Gearbox Software hasn't talked about the new accusations made by Sega.