Sega turns on Gearbox in Aliens: Colonial Marines lawsuit

The Aliens: Colonial Marines class action lawsuit is turning ugly as Sega starts pointing the finger at Gearbox Studios, claiming that the developer mismanaged the marketing for the game and caused all of the controversy surrounding its release.

Just last month, Sega accepted a settlement deal in the case, agreeing to pay out $1.25 million but despite this, the company refused to admit to any guilt and is now resorting to dumping the blame on Gearbox, which recently appealed to have its name dropped from the case. According to new documents, Sega believes that Gearbox CEO, Randy Pitchford, played a huge part in the Aliens: Colonial Marines marketing strategy:

“The parties had to mutually agree to the ‘precise particulars of marketing assets' delivered by Gearbox. Gearbox's participation – Randy Pitchford's, in particular – was a key element in the ACM marketing strategy from the beginning.”

Sega states that it was given “absolute discretion” on the game's marketing but it was not solely responsible as Gearbox previously claimed when it appealed to have its name dropped from the lawsuit. All marketing decisions had to be agreed upon by both parties.

According to the publisher, this wasn't the first time it had trouble dealing with the Gearbox CEO, an email obtained by Polygon shows that he leaked information at an E3 2011 panel and did a similar thing leading up to the launch of Borderlands 2.

“I spoke face to face to Gearbox's Steve Gibson about their persistent panel leaking,” Sega GM and Director of Brand Marketing,  Matt Eyre said, in reference to E3 2011.

“Effectively- it's Randy Pitchford doing whatever the fuck he likes. Apparently he did it twice on Borderlands 2 also, 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 .”

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KitGuru Says: Aliens: Colonial Marines was a disaster and it looks like it may have all been caused by studio mismanagement, which is a shame. Hopefully this year's Alien Isolation will prove to be a better game.

Source: Polygon

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