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[Terrell]

lol, this is pretty ironic with your avatar, but yea I agree with what you said. He shouldn't just take personal insults and threats, but valid criticisms is something he is ignoring which shouldn't be done.

Considering this is TWITTER, land of the obscenely short character limit, what legit constructive criticism could be lobbed his way?

I simply don't have faith that there's much for Randy to address, so why dig through a pile of shit to get to it? Look what that does to Kamiya.

It's not right, but given what you see on Twitter most days, it's hard to say that he's just being a dick about it.

 

[VegaNine]

Telling us that our product was bad = injury.

Another injury and he'll need a cheap medic to patch him up.

 

[FyreWulff]

Personal update, I've been accused by Mr. Pitchford of attempting to do nothing but vilify and injury for the purposes of grandstanding, and was told I should have sent private questions.

Trouble is, last time I asked questions through official channels, I got told Aliens: Colonial Marines would ship with next-gen lighting in an interview I now cringe at the thought of.

That's a problem inherent in "game journalism," such that it is. You're a "shoddy journalist" for not taking part in the big PR Rube Goldberg machine -- very much like how Eurogamer got called out for announcing Borderlands 2 before Game Informer got its big exclusive reveal -- despite the fact that such a machine is exactly WHY a situation like Colonial Marines is allowed to happen.

Maybe I am indeed showboating a little, but y'know, when we serve an audience, how are we doing right by them in asking the questions privately?

He just wants to control the conversation on his own terms.

If he knew what was good for the future of his company, he's shut up and take the beating. Everyone's sniffing the blood now, though. He knows he can get away with it too because he's playing to his marks.

 

[Bedlam]

That's a problem inherent in "game journalism," such that it is. You're a "shoddy journalist" for not taking part in the big PR Rube Goldberg machine -- very much like how Eurogamer got called out for announcing Borderlands 2 before Game Informer got its big exclusive reveal -- despite the fact that such a machine is exactly WHY a situation like Colonial Marines is allowed to happen.

Ha, I've totally forgotten that Eurogamer/BL2 episode. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[BY2K]

From the review thread:
Are we there yet?

Give it a week.

 

[Sean]

I don't really like Pitchford, but to be fair, he could do whatever the fuck he wants on his own personal Twitter account. If he wants to respond to positive tweets and ignore negative tweets, or block certain people, that's completely up to him.

Seems like people just won't quit until they force some kind of public apology out of this guy.

 

[chicagocubsfan]

Someone should tweet him "Hey I bought Aliens Colonial Marines at ______ and I only received this weird, crappy Alpha version."

 

[plutoknight]

Uh, Totilo is like the Anti-Sterling. Guy is clinical/dull as hell and wouldn't come near bucking the system outside of flat lip service.

Yes but seeing a journalist with a fair bit of clout attached to their name from both sides of the coin (Like you said, Sterling and Totilo couldn't be any more different, unless one hated video games!) acknowledge that there is a problem leads me to believe there IS a huge problem here worth looking into. I've always been skeptical of previews because they always read as controlled experiences, and was wondering how long until someone leveraged this to their advantage.

I would've pegged a bigger company than Gearbox to accomplish this first, however.

twitter is such an onerous curse on modern discourse. horribly fragmented debates broadcasted from behind a 190 character firewall which basically gives you a license to put out the most abbreviated, vapid statement possible and call it a day; all the while selectively recirculating only the most reassuring of commentary from your pre-verified clique of supporters.

it's a pedestal for cowards.

It's Pariser's "Filter Bubble" at work!

 

[Moss]

twitter is such an onerous curse on modern discourse. horribly fragmented debates broadcasted from behind a 190 character firewall which basically gives you a license to put out the most abbreviated, vapid statement possible and call it a day; all the while selectively recirculating only the most reassuring of commentary from your pre-verified clique of supporters.

it's a pedestal for cowards.

Very astute. If I had read it on Twitter I'd retweet it.

 

[Magpul]

All the more reason not to buy and to embrace the scallywag.

 

[Clear]

Maybe I am indeed showboating a little, but y'know, when we serve an audience, how are we doing right by them in asking the questions privately?

The problem is that Jim is being horribly disingenous about this.

What people are willing to say "on the record" is not the same as what might be persuaded to say under conditions of anonymity. By going after Pitchford head-on, he's basically guaranteeing him to give a no-comment response.

As I've written repeatedly: If you have a problem with the game, then you should primarily have a problem with the fucking publisher. They are the ones backing, manufacturing and marketing the thing - they are in the dominant position in the pub-dev relationship.

Hence, trying to goad Pitchford into saying something to the effect that "SEGA forced us to ship prematurely" is NEVER going to happen for the exact same reason that he'd never say "Yeah it was all our fault, we fucked over SEGA"... its just bad business - especially when the game has just come out.

 

[Boulayman]

This. Nobody forced you to buy the game.

Well to be frank, I was mighty close to preordering, the demo looked great and there were a lot of specials with the game as low as 37.50 so yah nobody ' forced' but they sure honey trapped shitload of people based on false advertisement.

 

[Jim Sterling]

The problem is that Jim is being horribly disingenous about this.

What people are willing to say "on the record" is not the same as what might be persuaded to say under conditions of anonymity. By going after Pitchford head-on, he's basically guaranteeing him to give a no-comment response.

As I've written repeatedly: If you have a problem with the game, then you should primarily have a problem with the fucking publisher. They are the ones backing, manufacturing and marketing the thing - they are in the dominant position in the pub-dev relationship.

Hence, trying to goad Pitchford into saying something to the effect that "SEGA forced us to ship prematurely" is NEVER going to happen for the exact same reason that he'd never say "Yeah it was all our fault, we fucked over SEGA"... its just bad business - especially when the game has just come out.

Maybe I'm just too jaded. I've done that dance too many times to see it as little more than a waste of time. For me, it was more useful to raise awareness of the faults with A:CM and its problematic marketing than try to coax a half-answer that would probably be given to me under the condition of, "You can't tell this to anybody." When someone tells me I should have spoken to them privately, all I'm hearing is they want to control the info. What's more, I'm pushing exactly FOR an "on record" statement. Gearbox convinced a lot of fans to preorder the game. They're beholden to them, not me. They should be talking to them, not me.

For the record, I know of a few people who tried contacting Randy and other Gearbox employees with private questions, only to be roundly ignored. These guys aren't talking, period.

It's a cloak and dagger industry, often to a farcical degree.

 

[Incontinentia Buttocks]

Didn't see this thread but tweeted him my feelings in a non aggressive way. Have no idea if he has blocked me yet.

 

[thumb]

Maybe I'm just too jaded. I've done that dance too many times to see it as little more than a waste of time. For me, it was more useful to raise awareness of the faults with A:CM and its problematic marketing than try to coax a half-answer that would probably be given to me under the condition of, "You can't tell this to anybody." When someone tells me I should have spoken to them privately, all I'm hearing is they want to control the info.

For the record, I know of a few people who tried contacting Randy and other Gearbox employees with private questions, only to be roundly ignored. These guys aren't talking, period.

It's a cloak and dagger industry, often to a farcical degree.

I hear you on this one. And the only way that developers/publishers will stop outrageously misleading demos and previews is if they're solidly held accountable for them. If they know the press and gamers will hound them about it, maybe they will think twice.

 

[Palette Swap]

Well to be frank, I was mighty closed to preordering, the demo looked great and there were a lot of specials with the game as low as 37.50 so yah nobody ' forced' but they sure honey trapped shitload of people based on false advertisement.

And for some reason, review embargoes have become an acceptable practice.

 

[Lone_Prodigy]

Very astute. If I had read it on Twitter I'd retweet it.

Too bad it's over 140 characters.

 

[Moss]

I know nothing about their development process, but Gearbox do not seem like the kind of people who'd actively seek to deceive their fans. Its development was clearly troubled, and the game was likely pushed to market by an anxious publisher.

From a creative standpoint, the best thing to do would have been to delay and retool the game. But that's not always possible when you're dealing with the sorts of money in play here. But, then again, that's the risk you take when you accept projects as large as this.

As for Randy's silence. Sure. He must know by now that ACM was not a particularly good game. Acknowledging it publicly would burn bridges with its publisher. Not only that, but shame and embarrass all the people who worked on it, people he knows and likes. Nobody went into this project intending or expecting to make a bad game.

I really sympathise with him. The most depressing parts of my career have been when I've been forced to put out work that has been sub par and needed more time, but my hands were tied. And yeah, I don't want to talk about it either.

 

[bangai-o]

The problem is that Jim is being horribly disingenous about this.

What people are willing to say "on the record" is not the same as what might be persuaded to say under conditions of anonymity. By going after Pitchford head-on, he's basically guaranteeing him to give a no-comment response.

As I've written repeatedly: If you have a problem with the game, then you should primarily have a problem with the fucking publisher. They are the ones backing, manufacturing and marketing the thing - they are in the dominant position in the pub-dev relationship.

Hence, trying to goad Pitchford into saying something to the effect that "SEGA forced us to ship prematurely" is NEVER going to happen for the exact same reason that he'd never say "Yeah it was all our fault, we fucked over SEGA"... its just bad business - especially when the game has just come out.

sega pays for the game to be made, gives them a Team Ico deadline, markets the game just like their supposed to, distributes it, and the dev studio apparently has no responsibility in this ordeal?

off topic

i have never read or heard the word "disingenuous" on any other world context besides neogaf gaming side. i feel like the word is now synonymous with videogames.

 

[grimshawish]

I suspect when they try to come out with their 'next' game they will struggle to find either the reporter or publisher who'll show a single bit of interest.

He has the right to block people ofc; so can't really criticism for that.

 

[dark10x]

Its development was clearly troubled, and the game was likely pushed to market by an anxious publisher.

As I've written repeatedly: If you have a problem with the game, then you should primarily have a problem with the fucking publisher.

Sega had given them years to work on this game and allowed them to delay it over and over again. It has been suggested that they squandered at least half of the final delay to finish up Borderlands 2 rather than actually working on Aliens. I'd say Sega had been pretty generous with their schedule but there comes a time when you have to ship a game and wash your hands of the situation. I'm sure Sega had no interest in pouring extra money into this product when it seemed obvious that even another year would likely have had little impact.

Sega has given Gearbox all the time in the world to finish this damn game.

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

He's coming off more and more as Dyack did, only he's fortunate that Borderlands worked out for him. Too bad he's ruining whatever goodwill BL got him by shitting out both Duke Nukem and Aliens under the Gearbox name.

 

[antitrop]

Too bad it's over 140 characters.

twttr such onerous curse on mdrn discourse. horrbly frgmntd debates brdcsted frm behnd a 190 chrctr frwall which basic gives u a licns to put out the most abbrev vapid statmnt psble and call it a day all while selectiv recirculating only the most reassuring of commntry from ur prevrified clik of supprt

And that's still 303 characters.

 

[Megasoum]

I know nothing about their development process, but Gearbox do not seem like the kind of people who'd actively seek to deceive their fans. Its development was clearly troubled, and the game was likely pushed to market by an anxious publisher.

From a creative standpoint, the best thing to do would have been to delay and retool the game. But that's not always possible when you're dealing with the sorts of money in play here. But, then again, that's the risk you take when you accept projects as large as this.

As for Randy's silence. Sure. He must know by now that ACM was not a particularly good game. Acknowledging it publicly would burn bridges with its publisher. Not only that, but shame and embarrass all the people who worked on it, people he knows and likes. Nobody went into this project intending or expecting to make a bad game.

I really sympathise with him. The most depressing parts of my career have been when I've been forced to put out work that has been sub par and needed more time, but my hands were tied. And yeah, I don't want to talk about it either.

At least there was no reversible cover on AC:M!

 

[madmackem]

The biggest bait and switch i can remember and i count our peters wafferlings in that. The silence from gearbox makes it even more shady.

 

[Geoff9920]

How many other games did Gearbox put out over the course of Colonial Marines development? This whole thing reeks of poor project management and a developer trying to patchwork some sort of final product together.

 

[Stinkles]

I am a very old man, I admit, but Twitter is really confusing for me. I get completely different, almost polar experiences depending on which device I log in with and following or comprehending a conversation is absolutely frustrating.

 

[Moss]

Sega had given them years to work on this game and allowed them to delay it over and over again. It has been suggested that they squandered at least half of the final delay to finish up Borderlands 2 rather than actually working on Aliens. I'd say Sega had been pretty generous with their schedule but there comes a time when you have to ship a game and wash your hands of the situation. I'm sure Sega had no interest in pouring extra money into this product when it seemed obvious that even another year would likely have had little impact.

Sega has given Gearbox all the time in the world to finish this damn game.

Yep. True. The development did seem very on-again off-again though. I wonder how much uninterrupted time they actually had to work on it. Not using this as an excuse for the final product's quality, but genuinely interested in what happened here. As are many, I feel.

 

[alfredofroylan]

I know nothing about their development process, but Gearbox do not seem like the kind of people who'd actively seek to deceive their fans. Its development was clearly troubled, and the game was likely pushed to market by an anxious publisher.

Six years isn't enough time? Yeah I know games like Gran Turismo, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus among others take a lot of time, but it's really hard to justify the time invested in this title.

How many other games did Gearbox put out over the course of Colonial Marines development? This whole thing wreaks of poor project management and a developer trying to patchwork some sort of final product together.

Since 2006:

2006 Brothers in Arms: D-Day
2007 Brothers in Arms DS
2008 Brothers in Arms: Art of War
2008 Brothers in Arms (Cell phone game)
2008 Samba de Amigo
2008 Brothers in Arms: Double Time
2008 Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
2008 Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes
2009 Borderlands
2010 Brothers in Arms: Global Front
2011 Duke Nukem Forever
2011 Aliens Infestation
2012 Borderlands 2

Some of them like Infestation weren't developed by Gearbox.

 

[antitrop]

I am a very old man, I admit, but Twitter is really confusing for me. I get completely different, almost polar experiences depending on which device I log in with and following or comprehending a conversation is absolutely frustrating.

It's not just you, I'm 27 and I can't fucking stand it.

 

[Haunted]

I am a very old man, I admit, but Twitter is really confusing for me. I get completely different, almost polar experiences depending on which device I log in with and following or comprehending a conversation is absolutely frustrating.

How Twitter and Reddit rose to popularity in the face of established UI/UX standards is completely beyond me. Those sites are barely usable as is.

 

[Dali]

And for some reason, review embargoes have become an acceptable practice.

Yeah its amazing how different the videogame industry is from the movie industry in that respect. Your movie is a turd? Too bad. Its still getting watched and reviewed before it releases. How the fuck has such a dishonest and consumer unfriendly practice evolved in the game industry?

 

[Moss]

At least there was no reversible cover on AC:M!

No comment.

 

[PaulExcellent]

Man, what a jerk.

Spoiler

I'm still going to get the PC version.

 

[BigDug13]

Yeah its amazing how different the videogame industry is from the movie industry in that respect. Your movie is a turd its still getting watched and reviewed before it releases. How the fuck has such a dishonest and consumer unfriendly practice evolved in the game industry?

Because we keep eating the shit they shovel our way. It would take another industry collapse on the level of the Atari ET landfills to change it.

 

[Burai]

I suspect when they try to come out with their 'next' game they will struggle to find either the reporter or publisher who'll show a single bit of interest.

Yeah, we all wish.

 

[dark10x]

Man, what a jerk.

Spoiler

I'm still going to get the PC version.

Why exactly? It's one of the most boring things I've played in ages and that's not even including all of the bugs the game is filled with.

 

[plagiarize]

Yep. True. The development did seem very on-again off-again though. I wonder how much uninterrupted time they actually had to work on it. Not using this as an excuse for the final product's quality, but genuinely interested in what happened here. As are many, I feel.

I'm just at a loss as to how they could treat this license as they have. They clearly have the talent to produce a game worthy of the brand name (not as good as the films or anything crazy, but that Aliens game we all wanted), so why didn't that happen? If they kept shelving it for other products, they shouldn't have asked for it in the first place. If they were going to outsource large chunks of it, they shouldn't have taken it on.

This franchise above all others deserves respect from game developers who have borrowed heavily from it. Gearbox publically admit being such developers. Instead of paying the franchise back, they paid someone else to wipe their arse with it after promising all of us that it was in good hands.

 

[plutoknight]

Why exactly? It's one of the most boring things I've played in ages and that's not even including all of the bugs the game is filled with.

Take a gander at the Steam PC forums. There's a bit of a collaborative effort interested in fixing the game...

 

[Burai]

Yeah its amazing how different the videogame industry is from the movie industry in that respect. Your movie is a turd? Too bad. Its still getting watched and reviewed before it releases. How the fuck has such a dishonest and consumer unfriendly practice evolved in the game industry?

The movie industry is largely the same. Scheduled press screenings and embargoes are the norm across all media. The games industry does appear to take it a little too far. Embargoes on announcements of announcements, for example.

 

[entremet]

I like Randy. He's just in bad spot. What do you expect a CEO to do? Badmouth his team and product publicly? Not a good look.

Looks like they do better with original IP.

 

[Neuromancer]

I am a very old man, I admit, but Twitter is really confusing for me. I get completely different, almost polar experiences depending on which device I log in with and following or comprehending a conversation is absolutely frustrating.

When a tweet has been selected to view as a conversation, you read from top to bottom. Like this one:

If you're just looking at a raw Twitter feed and haven't selected a tweet to view as a conversation, newest tweets appear at the top. Looks like this:

Hope that helps a little.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

So Gearbox losing money on this title then? Maybe Sega didn't want to invest more money in the project but of course also wanted a "finished" game.

 

[Shaanyboi]

....This is a joke, right?

 

[jaxpunk]

Twitter is a fucking trainwreck and a blight on discourse

Just twitter, not youtube or any comments section of any website?

 

[plagiarize]

Rebellion may be second or third tier developers, but at least they put all their heart and soul into AvP 2010. At least they came in on time. At least they made it their top priority.

No wonder its the better game. That more than anything else should be damning for Randy. He let a vastly inferior developer do a better job of making an Alien game for a fraction of the money and in a fraction of the time. He put the focus on other projects. The blame is pretty much all his in my eyes. It sure seems like it was business decisions that broke this thing.

 

[Ghazi]

Are you FOR or AGAINST A:CM?

I'll repeat myself one last time, FOR or AGAINST?

 

[Zuhzuhzombie!!]

I am a very old man, I admit, but Twitter is really confusing for me. I get completely different, almost polar experiences depending on which device I log in with and following or comprehending a conversation is absolutely frustrating.

I use mine to follow IT news mainly.

Logged in today. Well, tried to. My account just completely fucking disappeared.

 

[PaulExcellent]

Why exactly? It's one of the most boring things I've played in ages and that's not even including all of the bugs the game is filled with.

Mods!
Also, I like Aliens.

 

[antitrop]

I like Randy. He's just in bad spot. What do you expect a CEO to do? Badmouth his team and product publicly? Not a good look.

Looks like they do better with original IP.

Take responsibility and be a man about it.

He doesn't have to do it on Twitter. In fact, I would hope he does not. This deserves a full interview/article.

He really just shouldn't be saying anything on Twitter at all until he gets a chance to explain himself to a real journalist. Not just going around telling people on Twitter he's blocking them.