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Randy Pitchford only has time for Colonial Marines praise, [losing money on Aliens]

megamerican

Member
The best way someone thought to handle fucking over your fans, your publisher, and your own studio's rep was to respond to obviously fake tweets?
 
It doesn't, since the larger audience will not read Pitchfords tweets and comments anyway. No one is blaming SEGA or Gearbox for putting ads out for the game which are aimed at the mainstream consumer.

Well I would agree with you there if: 1) If Randy himself wasn't heavily involved and responsible for (the representation of) this product.

and 2) If Twitter wasn't readily and easily available to the public, even more accessible than an average A:CM TV advertisement.

You are right: the average gamer may never even know who Randy Pitchford is and even stumble on his Twitter page, but he is still part of the marketing team of that product, whether he likes it or not.
 

Izick

Member
Okay, so picture this:

You're a major part of a development studio, and you churn out a turd. You have to keep in mind that you have to make sure your game sells well so you're studio doesn't lose too much, because there are people with jobs there. Are you going to respond to negative press at every turn, or are you going to try and selectively respond to positive stuff, to make your product look better so it sells more?
 

Dali

Member
An explanation isn't needed but one should be offered. He says he doesn't like being called a liar, then don't act like one. A little honesty in situations like this can create a lot of good will.

My take in silly video form (there's one thing re Destiny before I talk gearbox...but the vid is only a few mins total): http://youtu.be/8ZpmgDBSYTY

Step 1: get gaf account approved
Step 2: plug my youtube feed
Step 3: ??????
Step 4; profit?
 

graboids

Member
Trying to figure out how Gearbox will turn all of this A:CM stuff into a mission from Claptrap in Borderlands 3...hmm...
 
Ugh, a Jim Sterling article, is not exactly the first time he does a pitchfork article. Apart from the deluded praise from the fake twitter accounts I don't see him particulary entitled. Is not like he can say: "The game is shit ,sorry.", is a PR suicide as being overly defensive.
 
It doesn't, since the larger audience will not read Pitchfords tweets and comments anyway. No one is blaming SEGA or Gearbox for putting ads out for the game which are aimed at the mainstream consumer.

Sega is still using the old demo footage to market the game on it's official website.
 
I'm sorry guys, but to me this simply boils down to Gearbox/Sega putting out a sub-par game.

Whoopity-doo,

Shit happens. The world's an imperfect place. etc. etc.

I'm not saying people if they are disappointed shouldn't be unhappy about it, just that... well its not that remarkable or unexpected an outcome! Point is, most movies in the Alien franchise aren't particularly good either. Yet I don't recall this level of anger when Fox dumped Alien 3 or Resurrection onto our screens, let alone the rank turds that are the AVP movies!

Sorry but I just find the reaction weirdly excessive. And as for (supposedly professional) critics demanding explanations... seriously? The obvious, perfectly safe and reasonable answer is: "We did the best we could do under the circumstances. Sorry that you didn't like it."
The problem isn't that the game is bad. It's that gameplay was shown that is totally different (and better) then the final game. People were looking forward to that game, which was shown to the press and public. And now there are questions what happened to that game. Did it ever exist? Was it all just CGI? Was it thrown away for some reason? Did the server storing the code catch on fire?

Well I would agree with you there if: 1) If Randy himself wasn't heavily involved and responsible for (the representation of) this product.

and 2) If Twitter wasn't readily and easily available to the public, even more accessible than an average A:CM TV advertisement.

You are right: the average gamer may never even know who Randy Pitchford is and even stumble on his Twitter page, but he is still part of the marketing team of that product, whether he likes it or not.
Yes, he is basicly part of the PR-team. My issue is just that keeping quiet and let the normal marketing do their job will go down better with the fans then what he is doing now.

Sega is still using the old demo footage to market the game on it's official website.
Then that should be taken down of course. Did they also use it in tv spots, prerolls online, etc? If so, they can also be blamed with misleading consumers if it isn't accompanied by a 'not actual gameplay footage' disclaimer.
 
The problem isn't that the game is bad. It's that gameplay was shown that is totally different (and better) then the final game. People were looking forward to that game, which was shown to the press and public. And now there are questions what happened to that game. Did it ever exist? Was it all just CGI? Was it thrown away for some reason? Did the server storing the code catch on fire?


Yes, he is basicly part of the PR-team. My issue is just that keeping quiet and let the normal marketing do their job will go down better with the fans then what he is doing now.

Didnt Bungie show a bunch of footage for Halo 2 before it came out that was much better looking then the final game? It seems like this is something that happens from time to time.
 
Ugh, a Jim Sterling article, is not exactly the first time he does a pitchfork article. Apart from the deluded praise from the fake twitter accounts I don't see him particulary entitled. Is not like he can say: "The game is shit ,sorry.", is a PR suicide as being overly defensive.

What he should have done is not say anything about any criticism whatsoever.

He should have exclusively responded to positive tweets and regurgitated Gearbox PR. As the head of a game with lots of baggage behind it, that's the only logical solution here.

Even acknowledging the fact he has criticism opens up a world of pain.
 

DarkKyo

Member
Is there more to this than the game sucking?

I know people are annoyed that it's shit, but why are Gearbox getting extra flack over other teams that put out shit games?

Other than these supposedly false Twitter accounts and demo that had better graphics than the end product (not unheard of), have they actively deceived anyone?

Just trying to work out if I missed anything here.

I think people feel cheated because the game used to look super promising.
 
Didnt Bungie show a bunch of footage for Halo 2 before it came out that was much better looking then the final game? It seems like this is something that happens from time to time.
Could be. You're right that it happens more, although I think it has gotten better. Still doesn't make it right if companies pull that. I get using CGI in a tv spot, but it should be clear to the viewer that isn't the actual game.
 
Yes, he is basicly part of the PR-team. My issue is just that keeping quiet and let the normal marketing do their job will go down better with the fans then what he is doing now.

well this is what I am guessing is happening with his Twitter account,

For every (literally) 80 shitty complaints, insults and criticism he is getting, there's one positive tweet about the game, (whether it is fake or not is not relevant really) so he is compelled to respond, and make it seem like he and his team did ok, I can just imagine the amount of pressure on the guy.

And like someone said, even though he didn't have full control over this product, he still has to pick up the slack from the critics.
 
Ugh, a Jim Sterling article, is not exactly the first time he does a pitchfork article. Apart from the deluded praise from the fake twitter accounts I don't see him particulary entitled. Is not like he can say: "The game is shit ,sorry.", is a PR suicide as being overly defensive.

He should at least keep his mouth closed. After deceiving the press and the consumers that¡s the very least he should do.
 

MarkusRJR

Member
What state? I have played the first 3 levels on PC and I havent had any problems yet. It might not be evryones cup of tea, but it isnt broken like a lot of games are these days when they come out. Obviously it isnt at the ridiculously high standards of a game like Borderlands 2, but it doesnt seem anywhere near as bad as the internet would have you believe.
-Game took 6 years to come out.
-Randy promises awesome game.
-Shows E3 demo that looks awesome or at the very least decent. Randy makes a ton of claims in the E3 demo walkthrough, none of which are in the retail product.
-Game releases to terribad reviews.
-Nothing shown in the in-game demo was actually in the retail game apart from some assets and similar locations. Everything looks incredibly bad compared to E3 demo. Gearbox pretty much just created the demo to impress press and trick consumers.
-Turns out game was outsourced and treated like shit by Gearbox, all the while rumored to have spent Aliens: CM development money on Borderlands development.
-Sega seemingly becomes lax on Gearbox once Borderlands comes out and doesn't check in on Gearbox until it's too late. They ended up with outsourced shit and Gearbox finally came in to help develop and fix any game breaking issues at the last minute once they realize what ass the game is.

This is some of the shit I heard off NeoGAF/reddit since release, from sources like Sega to actual game testers.


I could go on and on but I'm on my phone. Gearbox treated the game like shit and pretty much lied to consumers about it. Everyone wants to know what the fuck went wrong and they've just been ignoring the situation seemingly creating fake positive twitter posts. Everything points to the terrible stories being true and Gearbox is like a deer in the headlights now that the cat is out of the bag.

Hopefully they make an official comment so we know what actually happened. I hope not all of the nasty rumors/stories are true but things don't look good.
 
The difference is that they didn't continue to use that footage to market the game.

I totally agree with you. Once they realized they were not going to hit those targets they should have stopped using that footage to promote the game. The fact that Sega still has that stuff up on their website seems crazy to me. I am really surprised there isnt more outcry about that.
 

bangai-o

Banned
Didnt Bungie show a bunch of footage for Halo 2 before it came out that was much better looking then the final game? It seems like this is something that happens from time to time.

Halo 2 turned out to be a great game. Same goes for the Killzone 2 example. That argument doesnt stand up well when compared with Colonial Marines.
 

Revven

Member
-Game took 6 years to come out.
-Randy promises awesome game.
-Shows E3 demo that looks awesome or at the very least decent.
-Game releases to terribad reviews.
-Nothing shown in the in-game demo was actually in the retail game apart from some assets and similar locations. Everything looked incredibly bad compared to E3. Gearbox pretty much just created the demo to impress press and trick consumers.
-Turns out game was outsourced and treated like shit by Gearbox, all the while rumored to have spent money on Borderlands development.
-Sega seemingly becomes lax on Gearbox once Borderlands comes out and doesn't check in on Gearbox until it's too late. They ended up with outsourced shit and Gearbox came in to help develop and fix any game breaking issues at the last minute once they realize what ass the game is.

Don't forget that apparently they also showed that demo outside of E3. I recall Jim Sterling saying they showed that same demo at PAX as well. Acting as if it was going to be how the final game would look. :x
 

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
Should we all tweet Randy and tell him what a great job he did and see what ones he replies to?

I'm not going to waste my time for this bollocks, he doesn't deserve one iota of attention after this colossal fuck up. But if anyone wants..
 

Loxley

Member
You know, for the longest time I've been one of the biggest defenders of Randy Pitchford and Gearbox (especially on GAF), but even I won't even try that here. This is totally the wrong way to go about handling the negative reactions to the whole mess that ACM ended up being.

I know that not every developer is so financially sound that they can afford to not only make mistakes, but openly admit that they were mistakes. I understand that the vast majority of the time devs have to kick the damage control up to 11 when something like this happens...but still. Seeing Gearbox just go completely silent on this is disheartening.
 

Izick

Member
Halo 2 turned out to be a great game. Same goes for the Killzone 2 example. That argument doesnt stand up well when compared with Colonial Marines.

While I completely disagree about Halo 2 being a good game, if he's talking about looks, then I agree with what he said, and it's funny because you brought up Killzone 2 because it still has that CGI video that hasn't been reached. (not only due to graphics, but animation-quality)
 

dmr87

Member
The trailer Nintendo uses is still contains the "fake" footage, unless they have some surprises for us with the Wii U version.
lol

http://www.nintendo.com/popup/video?embedcode=FneTR2NTo7YB0Dm6fYuC-IcuoB0uKqsT&agegate=true


While I completely disagree about Halo 2 being a good game, if he's talking about looks, then I agree with what he said, and it's funny because you brought up Killzone 2 because it still has that CGI video that hasn't been reached. (not only due to graphics, but animation-quality)

Difference is that Sony came out long before release and showed everyone new footage, which still looked very good.
 

BigDug13

Member
Why is that ridiculous? If someone was really looking forward to A:CM after all the lies and "in-engine" video that we were shown, and then ended up getting an outsourced turd, why shouldn't they boycott Gearbox?

Personally I look at it from a different angle: Gearbox proved with Borderlands 2 that they're willing to sell you a season pass, then later tell you that a bunch of DLC won't be included with the season pass, then outsource the DLC chapters that are included, then release an Aliens game that was 80% outsourced and turned out to be a piece of crap. Why should I reward that kind of behavior? How do I know they won't pull the same crap with Borderlands 3?

At a minimum, it's now clear that any Gearbox product shouldn't be purchased until a year later after the all-inclusive and repaired-through-patches GOTY edition is released.
 
Randy Pitchford just blocked me. Apparently it's not just threats and insults he'll block, but simply people writing about things he said publicly.
 
He supposedly just blocked Sterling lol

5mJtcRw.jpg


Edit: beaten by Jim himself, who I didn't even know had an account here
 
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