Aliens: Colonial Marines was a game that was bashed by critics all over the world, except a few. The game was in development hell as well, this much we know, since it has been 6 years since it was first announced by Sega.
Gearbox Software also managed to outsource the development to TimeGate studios, and more information has been revealed via a Reddit post by a developer. This is a rumour for now so take it with a grain of salt.
“Pecan (the internal codename for ACM) has a pretty long history. SEGA, GBX (Gearbox) and 20th Century FOX came to an agreement to produce an Aliens game around 6 years ago, after which SEGA almost immediately announced it, long before Pecan had even started production.
“The game has been in active development in the past, only to be shelved in favor of another project (Borderlands, Duke, etc), and each time it was resumed it would undergo a major content overhaul.”
It was still unfinished and Gearbox couldn’t get another extension from Sega due to the fear of getting sued.
“Campaign didn’t make much sense, the boss fights weren’t implemented, PS3 was way over memory, etc etc etc. GBX was pretty unhappy with TG’s work, and some of Campaign maps were just completely redesigned from scratch,” the post read.
“There were some last minute feature requests, most notably female marines, and the general consensus among GBX devs was that there was no way this game was going to be good by ship. There just wasn’t enough time.”
A reply from, what appears to be a TimeGate employee, rubbishes some of these claims and he ends up blaming Gearbox.
“Just to clarify, Everything Timegate did was under clear and explicit direction from Gearbox. Gearbox had creative control of everything that occurred at TG,” he wrote.
“In addition, Gearbox was responsible for firing some of the most talented people (and internationally recognized as such) TG had employed, all of which were snatched up immediately by competitors. It was Gearbox’s shitty oversight of the project that led to the product you all now have before you.”
You can read his entire reply here. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.