If true Gearbox better hope they have good lawyers. I don't see how Sega doesn't take them to court over this, especially if they were close to doing it before hand.
What would SEGA sue them for? Do you have a copy of the contract handy?
If true Gearbox better hope they have good lawyers. I don't see how Sega doesn't take them to court over this, especially if they were close to doing it before hand.
This situation sounds remarkably similar to Silicon Knight's XMen game.
Take money from Activison, work on different projects.
What would SEGA sue them for? Do you have a copy of the contract handy?
It really does, with the sole exception that the project that funds were funneled to were a hit in this case.
what's with all the Borderlands hate here all of a sudden, not cool guys :'(
More fresh rumors in this story. A supposed employee, has opened a thread in reddit about this mess.
http://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/comments/18ewf4/a_lot_of_you_are_rightfully_upset_at_the_final/
I don't understand the praise Gearbox get. Did people forgot about them before Borderlands ?
Randy Pitchfork just go all out gunblazing that he didn't took a CoD development because it was boring but 6 years ago they were still making Samba Del Amigo ports.
Think about it, beside Borderlands, gearbox didn't made anything fantastic. Sure, DNF wasn't their fault. Alien looked like chaotic development but still. They won internet over BL2 and their marketing and post release but that's about everything I can remember them doing right on their own besides ports
that's about everything I can remember them doing right on their own besides ports
Think about it, beside Borderlands, gearbox didn't made anything fantastic. Sure, DNF wasn't their fault. Alien looked like chaotic development but still. They won internet over BL2 and their marketing and post release but that's about everything I can remember them doing right on their own besides ports
How quickly people forget Brothers-in-Arms.
How quickly people forget Brothers-in-Arms.
Opposing Force and the first Brothers in Arms were very good.
First off, due to me breaking NDA, I can't provide any proof that I'm not just talking out of my ass. But I figure you'd be interested in hearing what I have to say regardless. I've been on the project for around a year and a half, so some of the following are things I've heard from more senior guys.
Pecan (the internal codename for ACM) has a pretty long history. SEGA, GBX 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.
SEGA, naturally, wasn't super pleased about the delays, but GBX got away with it for a long time and the contract between SEGA and GBX kept getting augmented to push the projected release further and further back. The last time it was resumed, GBX outsourced a good portion of the game to outside companies. Initially, the plan was for TimeGate to take the majority of campaign, GBX would take MP, Demiurge and Nerve would handle DLC and various other focused tasks. This decision was made mostly so that most of the developers at GBX could continue working on Borderlands 2, while a small group of LDs, coders and designers dealt with Pecan.
Somehow the schedules for Pecan and Borderlands 2 managed to line up and GBX realized that there was no fucking way they could cert and ship two titles at the same time. Additionally, campaign (which was being developed by TimeGate) was extremely far behind, even as Pecan's Beta deadline got closer and closer. In April or May (can't remember which), Pecan was supposed to hit beta, but GBX instead came to an agreement with SEGA that they would push the release date back one more time, buying GBX around 9 mos extension.
About 5 of those 9 months went to shipping BL2. In that time, TimeGate managed to scrap together 85% of the campaign, but once Borderlands 2 shipped and GBX turned its attention to Pecan, it became pretty apparent that what had been made was in a pretty horrid state. Campaign didn't make much sense, the boss fights weren't implemented, PS3 was way over memory, etcetcetc. GBX was pretty unhappy with TG's work, and some of Campaign maps were just completely redesigned from scratch. 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.
Considering that SEGA was pretty close to taking legal action against GBX, asking for an extension wasn't an option, and so Pecan crash-landed through certification and shipping. Features that were planned were oversimplified, or shoved in (a good example of this are challenges, which are in an incredibly illogical order). Issues that didn't cause 100% blockers were generally ignored, with the exception of absolutely horrible problems. This isn't because GBX didn't care, mind you. At a certain point, they couldn't risk changing ANYTHING that might cause them to fail certification or break some other system. And so, the product you see is what you get.
Beyond gameplay, the story has been raised as an issue several times. I can't really comment without feeling bad beyond saying that the script was approved by 20th Century FOX, and that the rush to throw a playable product together came at the cost of the story. Campaign does a pretty bad job of explaining a lot of the questions raised at the start of the game, and so hopefully there will be DLC to flesh that out a bit better.
I'll answer some questions, but I have to run soon, so it may take a while for responses.
what's with all the Borderlands hate here all of a sudden, not cool guys :'(
I post it again for the new page:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/comments/18ewf4/a_lot_of_you_are_rightfully_upset_at_the_final/
Could be true ...
Gearbox's own fault for releasing the awful Hell's Highway...
edit: Which by the way also had a completely fabricated smoke and mirrors pre-release walkthrough. Imo Gearbox are liars.
How quickly people forget Brothers-in-Arms.
Is that an educated "could be true", Shiggy? There's a few bits in there that stand out - the internal codename "Pecan" sounds right, given that it was showing up on Steam wishlists as "Pecan" last year etc. - and it has the ring of truth about it...
Hmm, this does not paint a pretty picture of Gearbox so far.
Hell, it would have been better for their image if they were to just develop this piece of shit themselves. At least that way there wouldn't be the possibility of being blacklisted by other publishers and SEGA starting a lawsuit
Just a guess based on that it sounds reasonable. Codename Pecan? True. Restarted several time with content overhaul afterwards? True. Outsourcing decisions? True. Aliens CM delay last year while Borderlands 2 shipped on time? True. Final game feels rushed? True.
lol, this game just keeps on giving. It was released in Australia without executable.
They forgot which studio should be responsible for this.
Yeah, I don't know why they didn't do it. Or just made it on their own..I mean they've selfpublished the second Section8, so they do seem to be in decent position fiscally.
Also..Sega just confirmed it's merely Gearbox trying to shift the blame:
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/sega-...es-sp-was-not-outsourced-to-timegate-studios/
What would SEGA sue them for? Do you have a copy of the contract handy?
Poor Sega got burned, it seems. It's odd to see a publisher outright contradict previous knowledge unless it wanted to do some damage control.
Is that an educated "could be true", Shiggy? There's a few bits in there that stand out - the internal codename "Pecan" sounds right, given that it was showing up on Steam wishlists as "Pecan" last year etc. - and it has the ring of truth about it...
EDIT:
"Pecan" also seems to be the name for some kind of custom API used in the game. Corroborating the "insider" account, or was the name picked by someone making it up to give it plausibility?
The developer says that Sega was close to taking legal action against Gearbox. Likely from the constant delays and thus not fulfilling their side of the contract by keeping to agreed upon terms. It's mentioned in the same section where it's said they couldn't ask for another delay. It's clear that Sega believes they contracted Gearbox to make the game by their current statements and likely to a certain quality. If Gearbox didn't do that but instead farmed it out, used the money supplied them and time given to further develop Borderlands 2 instead that's also a breach of contract with possibly some fraud and other stuff thrown in I think. You don't need to see the contract to consider this I think.
completely OT, but holy shit @ your tag and avatar, LOL
So if the game doesn't perform well, isn't Gearbox opening themselves up to a seeming legal liability of misrepresenting their services to Sega?More fresh rumors in this story. A supposed employee, has opened a thread in reddit about this mess.
http://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/comments/18ewf4/a_lot_of_you_are_rightfully_upset_at_the_final/
So if the game doesn't perform well, isn't Gearbox opening themselves up to a seeming legal liability of misrepresenting their services to Sega?
Sounds very similar to what Lucasarts said Free Radical were up to regarding Haze and Battlefront 3. Except FR didn't make a hit like Borderlands.
I hadn't seen it, thanks for posting.This video has been posted right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z2qVebxlUo&feature=youtu.be
Comparison between ACM demo, and the final product.
This video has been posted right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z2qVebxlUo&feature=youtu.be
Comparison between ACM demo, and the final product.
Sega can sue on the fact that they spent a lot of the money and time on their on game.