Sega's Aliens games are not canceled, may get new developers
Joystiq has been reporting that Sega has pulled funding from two big games based on Fox's "Aliens" franchise: the RPG at Obsidian and "Colonial Marines," in development at Gearbox. There has been speculation that the games might be canceled as a result.
However, I've just spoken to a source in a very good position to know what's up with both games who told me that they're definitely not canceled. Production is expected to continue and the games, both of which are well into development, will come out. But quite possibly not with the developers they're at. It's looking like it could be a "Splatterhouse" situation (if you don't know what that means, find out here).
My source described the situation at both Obsidian and Gearbox as "fluid," having to do mainly with the quality of the work. Sega, apparently, is not seeing what it wants on the schedule it wants to see it. Which is probably why, as Joystiq reported, it has pulled funding and those developers are hurting.
It remains to be seen how Sega will proceed, whether and when it will assign the games to new developers, and when they'll come out. But the plan definitely remains that gamers will be getting an Aliens RPG and "Aliens: Colonial Marines," as well as the recently announced "Aliens vs. Predator," in the not-too-distant future
Chris Morris reports on the business and culture of video games and offers analysis of recent events and industry trends.
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Ugh. One the one hand, Obsidian does have a bit of a spotty history when it comes to debugging, but that's mostly because of publisher fuckaround.
I'd certainly trust them to produce an atmospheric RPG more than I'd trust anyone else. Well, maybe Troika, but Troika doesn't exist anymore.
Posted by: NotGodot | February 17, 2009 at 09:47 PM
Every time a decent aliens game is about to arrive it gets put back or cancelled probably sega should have let someone else like epic games do the trick we would all know where we stand.Gearbox are good at fps games sega need to remmeber that games arent all about good graphics gameplay is just as if not more important.other fps games dont go through all this crap so why should aliens are we going to miss it like the ps2 and xbox did before.i aint best pleased with sega they should give it to a company that knows what it wants from the get go
Posted by: jim | February 17, 2009 at 04:28 AM
Oh my, these are one of really good developers, I never played bad game from Obsidian for example. If they have some funding and schedule conflict with Sega, it is Sega fault (sometimes called segfault) for sure.
Posted by: enki | February 16, 2009 at 05:35 AM
Well that's better than the games being canceled though not by much...
There are a whole raft of unknowns are the games being rushed or cant the studios deliver the quality ?
Not a nice situation to be in, I would have thought Gearbox making an FPS may have been on firmer ground than Obsidian.
Hopefully Sega can sort out this mess and get both games to market (there have been so few good aliens games, but so many bad ones).
Posted by: Dan | February 13, 2009 at 11:14 AM