Aliens: Colonial Marines Developer Shuts Down

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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TimeGate Studios, the developer of Aliens: Colonial Marines has reportedly been shut down and the employees sent home. Details are still a bit scarce and the company has yet to issue a statement on their status.

The studio is currently engaged in an ongoing lawsuit with publisher Southpeak Interactive, which reportedly won in arbitration and got TimeGate’s Chapter 11 changed to a Chapter 7 liquidation.
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No surprise after the failure of A:CM that their time would come to shut the gate.
 
Meanwhile, Gearbox (the company who got the rights from Sega to make the game outsourced it to make their own games instead) is laughing all the way to the bank.

Even though I didn't buy A:CM I won't be purchasing any Gearbox titles in the future. Bunch of liars, especially their CEO.

Would businesses in other industries be allowed to mislead customers the way they're misled in the games industry?
 
RedSh1rt said:
Would businesses in other industries be allowed to mislead customers the way they're misled in the games industry?
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Off the top of my head..movie industry, almost all consumer electronics, beauty products, fashion, energy, pharmaceuticals, mulitary equipment, automobile and insurance.
 
Kind of a no brainer that this was going to happen the moment the bankruptcy changed from an 11 to a 7. Suck for the employees, and the Timegate. Especially since at least some of the blame can be lain at Gearbox's door step. Though that in no way gets Timegate off the hook. They took on the project without the ability, or finances, available to execute it to a level that would be accepted by the community enough to be profitable, or profitable enough.
 
RedSh1rt said:
Meanwhile, Gearbox (the company who got the rights from Sega to make the game outsourced it to make their own games instead) is laughing all the way to the bank.

Even though I didn't buy A:CM I won't be purchasing any Gearbox titles in the future. Bunch of liars, especially their CEO.

Would businesses in other industries be allowed to mislead customers the way they're misled in the games industry?
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Couldna be worst.

COULD BE BOEING AND THE DREAMLINER 787...

so much for outsourcing batteries huh? :D

so much for human lives, 'murica companies...
 
Tak Ne said:
Off the top of my head..movie industry, almost all consumer electronics, beauty products, fashion, energy, pharmaceuticals, mulitary equipment, automobile and insurance.
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you know waaay too much :D
 
And steam still refuse to refund my money...

Well I'm glad they got canned, that's at least worth $60.
 
RedSh1rt said:
Meanwhile, Gearbox (the company who got the rights from Sega to make the game outsourced it to make their own games instead) is laughing all the way to the bank.

Even though I didn't buy A:CM I won't be purchasing any Gearbox titles in the future. Bunch of liars, especially their CEO.

Would businesses in other industries be allowed to mislead customers the way they're misled in the games industry?
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Yeah...this certainly isn't all Timegate's fault. I feel bad for the employees who got mass laid off, but then again after A:CM came out I would have been looking for a new job immediately anyway.
 
Well, who ever wrote their AI, probably needed to be fired. Unless he just wasn't given time to write a proper AI. I heard it was bugged out as hell.
 
From what I understand of TimeGates responsabilities is that they were just responsible for developing the levels and placing in the story line content.

TG should NOT have taken this job, they were looking for a big name title to help boost their sales and this would of been it! Except it was spear headed by Gearbox and their asshole of a CEO.
 
Serpent said:
Well, who ever wrote their AI, probably needed to be fired. Unless he just wasn't given time to write a proper AI. I heard it was bugged out as hell.
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Well, the story goes that Gearbox was commissioned to create the Aliens game by Sega. Sega gave Gearbox a bunch of money. Gearbox took that money and used it to create their own in-house titles, and outsourced Aliens at a cut-rate low budget and laughed all the way to the bank.
 
Ole Gordy really screwed the pooch on this one.
As a fan, this story gets sadder every day.
 
MavericK96 said:
Yeah...this certainly isn't all Timegate's fault. I feel bad for the employees who got mass laid off, but then again after A:CM came out I would have been looking for a new job immediately anyway.
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Agreed. I blame Gearbox and mostly Randy Pitchford for their utterly disingenuous attitude they've taken towards what they CONTINUE to demonstrate as the final game and the E3 demo they showed off for a while. I don't blame any of these third party companies really , they got offered work and they basically got their timetable fucked with by Gearbox who proceeded to hand off more work to more developers to meet a deadline.

Its sad Timegate is basically gone now because of that but they do share a bit of the blame.

After wasting my money on Aliens : CM I will not be buying anymore Gearbox games until they admit they falsified the impression they gave us all of what the final game was going to look like and even then probably not until Randy Pitchford is out of the picture. His contempt for his customers is really disgusting. I hate these exec's who act like we are all insects in their eyes and that they can simply drop rotting meat whenever they want where they want and we'll come scurrying along to eat it up.

Fuck Gearbox and especially fuck Randy Pitchford.
 
Godmachine said:
Agreed. I blame Gearbox and mostly Randy Pitchford for their utterly disingenuous attitude they've taken towards what they CONTINUE to demonstrate as the final game and the E3 demo they showed off for a while. I don't blame any of these third party companies really , they got offered work and they basically got their timetable fucked with by Gearbox who proceeded to hand off more work to more developers to meet a deadline.

Its sad Timegate is basically gone now because of that but they do share a bit of the blame.

After wasting my money on Aliens : CM I will not be buying anymore Gearbox games until they admit they falsified the impression they gave us all of what the final game was going to look like and even then probably not until Randy Pitchford is out of the picture. His contempt for his customers is really disgusting. I hate these exec's who act like we are all insects in their eyes and that they can simply drop rotting meat whenever they want where they want and we'll come scurrying along to eat it up.

Fuck Gearbox and especially fuck Randy Pitchford.
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You may wish to read more into the case before you start blaming Gearbox. See here : https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/696355-objection-050613.html

Timegate was the subject of a $10 million court judgment against them by Southpeak that was, right before they filed for bankruptcy, upheld on appeal. They were given a down payment by Southpeak to be used to fund game development and instead, the people in charge of Timegate apparently embezzled that money for their own personal use.
 
damicatz said:
You may wish to read more into the case before you start blaming Gearbox. See here : https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/696355-objection-050613.html

Timegate was the subject of a $10 million court judgment against them by Southpeak that was, right before they filed for bankruptcy, upheld on appeal. They were given a down payment by Southpeak to be used to fund game development and instead, the people in charge of Timegate apparently embezzled that money for their own personal use.
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That really doesn't excuse Gearbox of anything. All it does is make a better case for blaming Timegate.
 
Fuck Timegate, I hope those a-holes burn for this.
The bait-and-switch was not appreciated, and I wonder how many people blew $60+DLC costs on this gigantic pile of crap, especially after the 2011 trailer which looked amazing, of which none of it was included in the game.

Since the game was also true canon to the story, they completely ruined that as well.
Yes, they can go fuck themselves and I hope they never have work in this industry again.
 
Godmachine said:
After wasting my money on Aliens : CM I will not be buying anymore Gearbox games until they admit they falsified the impression they gave us all of what the final game was going to look like [...] I hate these exec's who act like we are all insects in their eyes and that they can simply drop rotting meat whenever they want where they want and we'll come scurrying along to eat it up.
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Didn't you just admit you bought the product without knowing what the final product was like? If so you proved their tactics work... :D
 
melteye said:
Didn't you just admit you bought the product without knowing what the final product was like? If so you proved their tactics work... :D
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In this case though, a lot of us were completely fooled by the 2011 20 minute gameplay trailer.
This was a case of bait-and-switch, and they had everyone completely fooled.

A lot of individuals also pre-order to get better prices, DLC content, and exclusives.
So if you wait until after it was released, if good, then one would have missed all of the those features/exclusives.


No, Timegate fucked everyone over, and this was entirely their fault.
Again, they have no right to work in the gaming industry ever again.

Fuck those assholes.
 
Have you heard of the new studio starting up called gate time?
 
After they opened the flood gates to angry consumers, I think they decided to call themselves water gate.
 
Shocking that this pile of poo would shut a company down. Well, not really.
 
damicatz said:
You may wish to read more into the case before you start blaming Gearbox. Timegate was the subject of a $10 million court judgment against them by Southpeak that was, right before they filed for bankruptcy, upheld on appeal. They were given a down payment by Southpeak to be used to fund game development and instead, the people in charge of Timegate apparently embezzled that money for their own personal use.
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Wow...just Wow. Anyone will say or do anything for money. Screw the customer, screw the game legacy we don't care. I had high, high hopes for this game. I'm glad I didn't pre-order.
 
Shut down is a work in progress, they will release a finished Beta statement in a couple of years.
 
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