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Pitchford: Fans wrong to sue Gearbox over Aliens: Colonial Marines

Yes, the market took care of Aliens CM, thanks in no small part to reviewers and the community alerting everyone to this garbage.

Yes, using the legal system to argue misrepresentation was a bit too far in my opinion and wasted precious resources.

BUT, after all that Randy refuses to apologize for showing off a game that was nothing like what was released. Randy cares only for the market and not the consumers that purchase from that market. Hence why Borderlands: Pre-Sequel was released on PS360 when next-gen console demand was huge! Only to then release it again on PS4One 3 months later, shitty port to boot.

I have no problem giving people the benefit of the doubt but in this case Randy Pitchford can go fuck himself.
 
Them putting their stamp of approval on Duke Nukem Forever, the Colonial Marines clusterfuck of a game/development plus them ripping off the Borderland art style from a CG short to cover up the generic and bland looking original looks makes me stay away from that studio.
 

Catdaddy

Member
I still think Colonial Marines game had a negative impact on Alien Isolation, I know before the reviews dropped most people were wary of another Alien title. Then Sega says sales AI sales were off…yeah..cause of THEIR mistake for releasing CM in the broken-ass state.

Randy can go pound sand....
 

Spacejaws

Member
9c21SaM.gif

I don't know why this gets posted. The Aliens in the sub tunnels are blind after the nuclear blast at the end of Aliens. It actually has an ingame reason and to be honest is one of the better parts of the game.

As for the suing thing, yea that response is a bit much, nobody sues over Transformers looking good in the trailers but being shit. Funnily enough movies do have trailers that include sequences and dialogue not in the final feature I wonder if anybody has ever challenged that...

As for lately, Assassins Creed Unity, Batman 60FPS PC, Dark Souls 2 and Watchdogs haven't been brought to court have they?

Other than that Randy is an ass and I want one more godamn patch for Aliens:CM for PC dammnit.
 
I don't know why this gets posted. The Aliens in the sub tunnels are blind after the nuclear blast at the end of Aliens. It actually has an ingame reason and to be honest is one of the better parts of the game.

As for the suing thing, yea that response is a bit much, nobody sues over Transformers looking good in the trailers but being shit. Funnily enough movies do have trailers that include sequences and dialogue not in the final feature I wonder if anybody has ever challenged that...

As for lately, Assassins Creed Unity, Batman 60FPS PC, Dark Souls 2 and Watchdogs haven't been brought to court have they?

Other than that Randy is an ass and I want one more godamn patch for Aliens:CM for PC dammnit.

Don't Xenomorphs generally base their movement on scent and sound as well?
 

Fox Mulder

Member
Them putting their stamp of approval on Duke Nukem Forever, the Colonial Marines clusterfuck of a game/development plus them ripping off the Borderland art style from a CG short to cover up the generic and bland looking original looks makes me stay away from that studio.

Plus pitchford being a giant asshole that wont apologize or at least shut the fuck up so people can forget about him. I'm never buying a game from them again.
 
Don't Xenomorphs generally base their movement on scent and sound as well?

Wasn't that one of the jump scares in the first movie in the tunnel. God I can't remember names now but it was Tom Skerrits(sp?) character hunting the aliens in the dark tunnels and bam alien gets him. Also I could swear that's the implication from the traversal scenes in A3.
 

Nosgotham

Junior Member
I use to love gearbox. I went to their community day every year but my opinion of them changed after the colonial marines fiasco. The community day after the aliens launch was very weird. They banned any questions about the game in all their panels. Instead of owning up , they tried to just sweep it under the rug.

I'm still pissed about the cancellation of the wiiu version when randy was talking it up so so much. No integrity, that dude. None
 

Memory

Member
This. Let A:CM remain as an eternal monument to why pre-ordering games is a terrible idea. At least then that piece of shit will have done something good for the world.

That would make sense if:
A: You couldn't refund/Exchange Physical games.
B: Most games didn't get reviewed before release.
C: Steam refunds were not a thing now.
D: People were not going to buy it day one anyway.
E: There was no such thing as pre-order bonuses.
F: There was no such thing as pre-order discounts.

The problem is multifaceted and simply saying all pre-orders are bad solves nothing. Most of Aliens sales came from the unassuming public who didn't see the numerous reviews and articles decrying the game before it was even released. They certainly all wasn't pre-orders either, I recall this mess topping charts weeks after release.
 
Yeah Randy yeah, whatever.

Not only you decided not to include Duke Nukem Forever's editing tools in the game (the only thing that could save that POS game), but you outright REMOVED it from the build 3DR had handed to you.

Then you kept lying with AC:CM fiasco.

You're a slimey lyer.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
I really don't like the way he's going about this. Just admit that it turned out poor and be done with it. That said...

Pitchford also expressed that he believes that the market should judge a product, not the legal system. He believes it worked in the case of Aliens: Colonial Marines, as he said "The market proved it was doing its job perfectly. The market is dispassionate -- rewarding what it likes and punishing what it doesn't. There is an objectivity and fairness in the open market's harsh, firm justice."
I kind of agree with this. This is how it SHOULD work.

The problem with this particular game (and some others as of late) is that it was basically pre-sold to an audience on lies and broken promises. Initial buyers were basically duped by the studio.
 

BY2K

Membero Americo
Sounds like we're getting a new Jimquisition on the subject.

Well, did not expect to be writing a Jimquisition on this old subject, but well... now it needs to happen.
 

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
Don't Xenomorphs generally base their movement on scent and sound as well?

I don't recall there ever being any emphasis on the Alien's senses in any of the first 3 movies. I just assume it's sight, sound and smell.

That would make sense if:
A: You couldn't refund/Exchange Physical games.
B: Most games didn't get reviewed before release.
C: Steam refunds were not a thing now.
D: People were not going to buy it day one anyway.
E: There was no such thing as pre-order bonuses.
F: There was no such thing as pre-order discounts.

The problem is multifaceted and simply saying all pre-orders are bad solves nothing. Most of Aliens sales came from the unassuming public who didn't see the numerous reviews and articles decrying the game before it was even released. They certainly all wasn't pre-orders either, I recall this mess topping charts weeks after release.

Exactly. If we are dragging pre-order culture into this then why not review embargoes as well? Like AC: Unity, A:CM was embargoed until the day of release.

Whilst I don't like pre-orders or release day embargoes, neither of them are the issue here. Gearbox and their lies are the issue here.
 

Sanke__

Member
My most hated person in the video game industry never disappoints.

The real justice for colonial marines will be the sales figures for battleborn.
 
That would make sense if:
A: You couldn't refund/Exchange Physical games.
B: Most games didn't get reviewed before release.
C: Steam refunds were not a thing now.
D: People were not going to buy it day one anyway.
E: There was no such thing as pre-order bonuses.
F: There was no such thing as pre-order discounts.

The problem is multifaceted and simply saying all pre-orders are bad solves nothing. Most of Aliens sales came from the unassuming public who didn't see the numerous reviews and articles decrying the game before it was even released. They certainly all wasn't pre-orders either, I recall this mess topping charts weeks after release.

You keep rationalising and pre ordering and bf4/alien CM etc are going to keep happening. But whatever, I stepped out of AAA gaming 2 years ago anyways.
 

Sanke__

Member
I really don't like the way he's going about this. Just admit that it turned out poor and be done with it. That said...


I kind of agree with this. This is how it SHOULD work.

The problem with this particular game (and some others as of late) is that it was basically pre-sold to an audience on lies and broken promises. Initial buyers were basically duped by the studio.

Yeah it's a pretty dumb remark on his part since the entire basis of the lawsuit is that they manipulated the free market by falsely advertising to consumers
 
The real justice for colonial marines will be the sales figures for battleborn.

So, so true. I wonder if he really understands how pissed off DN:F, A:CM, BL2.5, crappy PS4/XBO BL pack have made people or is he so insulated from reality at this point that he regards it all as the noise of 'haterz'.
 
Gearbox remains the sole company on my Never Buy anything list. Randy and crew are scumbags
It's not the only one on my list, but if it weren't for the Homeworld release I've managed to ignore them completely. At least I thought ACM looked like shit from the extended E3 demo, even as a huge Aliens fan it felt way off. The signs were there.

His words and the game are still full of absolute shit though.
 
Legal action was unnecessary and over reactionary, and I don't like contributing to all of the anger but he did put out a bad game and explicitly lie about who was making it and what it would look like up until very close to release, hence the reason why I don't trust the company anymore, but a bad game isn't going to make me sue, it sets a bad precedent for creative integrity (not that there was any of that in A:CM)
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
I don't know why this gets posted. The Aliens in the sub tunnels are blind after the nuclear blast at the end of Aliens. It actually has an ingame reason and to be honest is one of the better parts of the game.

It was nice of those blind aliens to leave my stolen gear by the level exit.
 
I don't recall there ever being any emphasis on the Alien's senses in any of the first 3 movies. I just assume it's sight, sound and smell.



Exactly. If we are dragging pre-order culture into this then why not review embargoes as well? Like AC: Unity, A:CM was embargoed until the day of release.

Whilst I don't like pre-orders or release day embargoes, neither of them are the issue here. Gearbox and their lies are the issue here.

I suppose the lack of defined eyeballs gave off the impression that they don't rely heavily on sight.
 
We were told getting a Gearbox ACM, instead they farmed it out to some shit dev and put out misleading footage.

Lying c***s. Can't even admit wrong.

Will never see a penny of my money.
 

Theecliff

Banned
stop digging yourself a hole randy

glad I didn't buy both this pos and duke nukem

not defending the game here, but i never understand why people keep posting that gif as if it's somehow indicative of how shitty the game is

as a person who hasn't even played the game i know that the alien walks past the player in that gif because you're stuck in an area with a bunch of blind and disabled xenomorphs who only react to sound
pretty sure it's regarded by some as the only good section of the game

edit: damn didn't see spacejaws post
 
as a person who hasn't even played the game i know that the alien walks past the player in that gif because you're stuck in an area with a bunch of blind and disabled xenomorphs who only react to sound
pretty sure it's regarded by some as the only good section of the game

That animation is just hilarious, that's why it keeps getting posted.
 
I swore to never buy another GB game after A:CM and I'm glad to say ive stuck with that resolution, and nothing they have due for release will change that. Fuck Gearbox.
 

Anung

Un Rama
Legal action was unnecessary and over reactionary, and I don't like contributing to all of the anger but he did put out a bad game and explicitly lie about who was making it and what it would look like up until very close to release, hence the reason why I don't trust the company anymore, but a bad game isn't going to make me sue, it sets a bad precedent for creative integrity (not that there was any of that in A:CM)

There needs to be some accountability though. In any other industry or for any other transaction if if you misrepresent or don't deliver what was stated you leave yourself of open to legal recourse. The Colonial Marines they shown us didn't exist. They used false pretenses to get people to buy their product. Literal fake footage of a thing that didn't exist outside of an MP4 file on someones PC.

That's one thing that I hate about the games industry. It seems like the only piece of media where they can mislead and bullshit costumers without any legal McGuffins.

Someone getting sued over this was a long time coming IMO and even if it was a waste of time at least it sent some kind of messages to scumbags like Pitchford. Evidently it didn't work because he has somehow deluded himself into thinking he's the victim of some spurious claim and that A:CM was poorly reviewed game on the market as opposed to a furious heap of trash that should have never seen release or the light of day.

Luckily I don't care about anything else they create so they'll never seen another penny from me.
 

Croatoan

They/Them A-10 Warthog
He is 100% correct. Hate on me all you want but the legal system isn't where this issue should have gone.

Pitchford is still my fav talking head. :)

A crappy Aliens game wont keep me from buying Borderlands 3 and Battleborn though.
 

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
Why? Why are you doing this Randy? Everybody kinda forgot about your lies (kinda, not really but at least nobody was talking about them anymore) and now you do this? Why not just stay quiet, say nothing? Why?
 

Linconan

Member
I don't know why this gets posted.

Cause that GIF is what started it all imo. The bitching on GAF.
And majority of people didn't even know the context as to why because the game wasn't even out. They just ran with it.


Me.
I liked it. It wasn't the best and had it's fair share of ...bugs....*giggles*. Never got into the Online, felt awkward and below par.
But in the end, as a fan, it was good to be immersed into the Alien Universe.
Now it's just gather dust in my collection, but still on display.
 

Catdaddy

Member
not defending the game here, but i never understand why people keep posting that gif as if it's somehow indicative of how shitty the game is

as a person who hasn't even played the game i know that the alien walks past the player in that gif because you're stuck in an area with a bunch of blind and disabled xenomorphs who only react to sound
pretty sure it's regarded by some as the only good section of the game

edit: damn didn't see spacejaws post

That animation is just hilarious, that's why it keeps getting posted.

I get why it's doing what it's doing but as Socks mentioned the animation is just funny, looks like its out for a midday stroll. Even if the game had perfect reviews and everyone loved it, it would still be funny as all hell.
 

Kolgar

Member
I didn't see much of the early videos, so by the time I got my hands on the patched PC game, I liked it quite a lot. The DLCs in particular were pretty good.

Not letting them off the hook for shipping a broken game, but it's a much better product now for anyone who has any interest.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
In my career I was told by a co-worker that worked close with him that the guy is a gigantic snake in the grass. I believed him and as time progresses it becomes more and more apparent. As an Alien fan I'll never put him and that team in my interests considering that whole issue revolved around something that clearly wasn't going to live up to its potential. But he pulled the salesman card and pushed it anyway, to the point where it just felt gross.
 
Nice inflamatory title there. If people who bought the Alien game hated it, theyre not really fans, are they?

Anyways, the dude is right. Just has a shitty way of expressing himself, then goes on to kind of pat himself on the back at the same time. Weird.
 
How is it his fault that people buy shitty license games? Should Sega be sued for every Sonic game of the last 10 years?

When was the last time a Sonic game looked as good as the Aliens: CM E3 demo that everyone based their expectations on?

Nobody gets their hopes up for Sonic, but this was previewed as an incredible game and released as dogshit.
 
Him saying "let the market judge" is arguably sensible, but such a shitty thing to say when he's purposely misled the market.
I agree with the gist of that though, and the implications of that notion basically being that Gearbox deserves any market-related consequences. Guess he reckons pissing off the video game internet will have a negligible financial impact.

Which makes you wonder what the response would've been if Colonial Marines was released now that Steam refunds is a thing.
Refunds really do seem to solve this whole thing. If game is surprise turd, refund. Pitchford gets his just market response and you get your money back and provide incentive for Pitchford to do better. Everyone's happy.
Don't pre-order/day one from stores with poor refund policies.
 
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