Polygon also reported that the company owes cash to no more than 50 different creditors, including Epic Games, Agora and DJ2 Entertainment with liabilities ranging from $10 to $50 million.

But that’s not all. Southpeak Interactive is also in a legal battle with TimeGate over payments licensing issues that has been on-going since 2009. So chalk up another $7.35 million to Southpeak since TimeGate’s appeal was denied two weeks. If it couldn’t get any worse, the developer may also lose the Section 8 IP.

That’s also not including the class action lawsuit that Sega and Gearbox Software are a part of with Aliens: Colonial Marines. It’s definitely dark days for the FPS developer, and it’ll remain to be seen if it can escape unscathed.

Regarding the same, president Adel Chaveleh stated that, “Today, we had to make the difficult decision to let go of some great game developers. This is never easy, and we’re doing all we can to assist those developers affected.

“TimeGate is preparing, as is the entire industry, for the transition to next-generation consoles and new business models. As part of this reinvention, all projects and strategic initiatives continue to move forward at the studio.”

We’re not sure how high their marketability would be after the failure of Colonial Marines. Apparently, according to rumours, employees were laid off following a publishing deal that fell through. Chaveleh never confirmed the number of employees laid off either.

Stay tuned for more, and hopefully those let go find work soon.

Source: GIBiz

This is in response to accusations that the demo and previews used to showcase Aliens: Colonial Marines were wildly different from the final game. Said accusations are supported by plenty of proof – a side by side comparison is enough – and even more oddly, some portions in the demo aren’t even in the final game.

Regardless, Pitchford has <a href="https://twitter.com/duvalmagic“>tweeted that it is “fair and understood” when people wonder why there’s a difference in the demo and final game. However, while they’re looking into it, there is “lots of info to parse, lots of stake holders to respect.”

So don’t expect an explanation – or at least, a full one – right off the bat.

Source: NowGamer

Gearbox Software’s Aliens: Colonial Marines has been on the end of a major critical beating since its release, but that didn’t stop it from claiming the top sales position in the UK.

The first person shooter has gone to not only become the second biggest launch for Aliens title (the first being Aliens vs Predator in 2010) but has also become the biggest launch of 2013 in the UK thus far.

Seriously.

The remaining top five appears pretty much the same as it was last week (and the month before that), with the exception of Dead Space 3 being in number 2. Otherwise, FIFA 13, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Far Cry 3 are still part pf the top 5 most selling games in the UK.

What do you guys think? Did the marketing and Gearbox’s good name help Aliens to sell, or was it simply off the strength of the Aliens brand name?

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.

TimeGate Studios announces the free release of Skirmish, a brand new game mode for the PC and XBLA versions of Section 8: Prejudice. The PS3 version, released today, already includes the mode.

Skirmish removes the control points that dominate play in normal games of Prejudice, in favour of a more straight up deathmatch experience.

If it’s free, it’s worth having.

TimeGate Studios continues to expand Section 8: Prejudice, breaking numerous laws of physics to jam more content into what is already a ridiculously value-packed offering. One of the year’s most acclaimed shooters gets even bigger in July with the announcement of the new Frontier Colonies Map Pack for the PC and Xbox Live for only 320 Microsoft Points ($3.99).  TimeGate plans to unleash the new multiplayer Skirmish mode for Xbox LIVE Arcade, PC, and the PlayStation Network later this month for the low price of $0.

The upcoming Frontier Colonies Map Pack includes two new maps for you to fight over, both on and offline. Desolation is a parched desert world haunted by the remains of a failed colonization attempt. Overseer is home to military facilities overlooking a habitable forest valley. Both maps are playable for all multiplayer game modes, including Conquest, Swarm, Assault, and the soon to be released Skirmish mode.

Touted by TimeGate’s game testers as “oh man, so awesome,” the newSkirmish mode pits the 8th Armored Infantry against the Arm of Orion in a team death match with a twist. Victory Points are awarded for kills and completed missions. Control Points cannot be captured or hacked in this game mode, though, so you’ll need to adjust your gameplay tactics.

The Frontier Colonies Map Pack will be available on Xbox LIVE Arcade for 320 Microsoft Points on July 13 and on PC for $3.99 starting July 27. TimeGate plans to announce more about the free multiplayer Skirmish game mode and PlayStation Network release, which is slated to release Summer 2011, so stay tuned.

TimeGate Studios have announced new downloadable content for Section 8: Prejudice : The Overdrive Map.

The Overdrive Map Pack includes two new multiplayer maps, Abaddon and Sky Dock. Amidst the magma craters of Abaddon, protect a power cell facility built on a scalding energy source. Sky Dock is a crucial military base and space port nestled in the frozen tundra. Each map is playable in both multiplayer and offline play for all game modes, which includes Swarm, Conquest, and the recently community-unlocked Assault game mode.

The DLC will see release on June 1, 2011 for PC and Xbox 360. Stay tuned with us for more news and updates.

Section 8: Prejudice will get a new mode unlocked if the community gets to 10 million kills. In order to keep track of the kills, TimeGate Studios have launched a counter at http://warisprejudice.com. And once it hits 10 million, TimeGate will unlock the new mode for both XBLA and PC versions.

“We’ve been absolutely blown away by the response to Section 8: Prejudice, and we’re very thankful to everyone who picked up the game,” said Adel Chaveleh, CEO of TimeGate Studios. “But we’re not done yet! When we announced Prejudice, we said we were committed to long-term support of the game, and this is just the beginning. Assault is a really fun, fast-paced game mode, and we can’t wait to give players free DLC. Given the success of the XBLA launch, we thought this would be a great chance to get the community involved and give everyone a chance to unlock Assault early!”

Assault is a team-versus-team game mode where teams race to capture all Control Points in the fastest time. While in the attack round, players must work together to capture all control points. During the defense round, players defend their bases for as long as possible.

Timegate Studios have released a patch for Section 8: Prejudice which certain gameplay issues, increases support for more players online and more. The full list is below:

STABILITY

* Fixed a rare shader system crash that could occur randomly during gameplay

* Fixed a crash that could occur when signing out of LIVE when a message about downloading DLC was on-screen, then attempting to access the marketplace from the DLC message

GENERAL

* Fixed an issue where the game was not correctly upgrading from the Trial Version to the Full Game when logging in with a LIVE account that had previously purchased the game

USABILITY

* Improved visibility of the Loading screen Deploy button after map transition

* Fixed an issue where an inactive sign-in change would disconnect players from Prejudice Online

* Fixed an issue where custom match browser search options saved from a previous run of the game were not reflected in the UI on subsequent runs, even though the actual search options were saved correctly

* Added the ability to reconnect to Prejudice Online without resigning-in, by selecting the Stats button without a connection.

TGXSERVER

* Added improved Region and Language dedicated server options to help players join servers that are near their region and have players of the same language

* Fixed an issue where idle dedicated servers would get into a bad state after an extended period of time

* Added descriptive error message for when a dedicated server fails to launch due to requiring an update

* Fixed an issue where dedicated servers would sometimes not reconnect to the stats system properly

Section 8: Prejudice turned out to be a big surprise for us as the game exceeded expectations. You can check our in depth review here.