Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford reckons those who hated Aliens: Colonial Marines and lashed out at Gearbox as a result might be sadists, or at least a bit dim.

As reported by The Guardian, Pitchford used part of his keynote speech at the Develop conference to talk about the criticism his company has received, referencing the much-maligned 2013 FPS.

“If you’re making entertainment on a grand scale, if you’re reaching millions, there will be tens of thousands of people who absolutely hate us, and some percentage of those will take it upon themselves to let us known how they feel,” said Pitchford.

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Documents filed by Gearbox in its defense against a class-action lawsuit over Aliens: Colonial Marines reveal that the publisher lost millions developing the game.

The lawsuit claims Gearbox falsely advertised Aliens: Colonial Marines by showing demos at trade and consumer events that did not accurately represent the final product.

"During the development process, Gearbox supplemented Sega’s development budget with its own money to help Sega finish its game; Gearbox’s contribution to A:CM totaled millions, none of which was ever repaid," the developer has said in documents published by Game Informer.

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Aliens: Colonial Marines actor Michael Biehn described the mood during development of the Gearbox shooter as “passionless”.

Speaking with Game Informer, Biehn, who played Dwayne Hicks in the Aliens movie and voiced the same character in Colonial Marines, said, “I just didn’t really have any fun. It seemed kind of passionless. I think in movies, television and the gaming world, you get some people that are really, really passionate, and some people that are just going through the paces.

“They think that because they have a brand name they’re going to get a hit game or hit movie out of it. That certainly was the situation on [Aliens: Colonial Marines].”

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Assuming trophies recently added to the game are accurate, Aliens: Colonial Marines is getting campaign-extending DLC.

The maligned shooter’s new chapter is called Stasis Interrupted, and a (spoiler-y) list of its associated achievements has been published by PS3Trophies.

Stasis Interrupted is the final piece of DLC promised for the game's Season Pass, but the first to extend its singleplayer mode.

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A class action lawsuit that claims the gameplay demo for Aliens: Colonial Marines amounted to false advertising has been dismissed by the defendants as "without merit".

The lawsuit alleges that Sega and Gearbox knowingly misled the public by claiming that the game's trade show demos were “actual gameplay”, when in reality they contained many features that were absent in the finished product.

“Sega cannot comment on specifics of ongoing litigation, but we are confident that the lawsuit is without merit and we will defend it vigorously,” Sega told Kotaku.

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The creators of Aliens: Colonial Marines have been named as defendants in a class action false advertising lawsuit.

The suit, filed by Edelson LLC in the district of Northern California, and obtained by Polygon, said Sega and Gearbox knowingly misled the public by claiming that trade show demos were “actual gameplay.” The suit also points to comments made by Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford that appeared to concede there were discrepancies in quality between what was shown pre-release, and what consumers received in the final product.

“That is understood and fair and we are looking at that,” said Pitchford at the time. “Lots of info to parse, lots of stake holders to respect. Lots to learn and discuss here… Beyond the scope of twitter. I appreciate and value criticism. I do not appreciate threats, insults, rudeness and intent not to add value, but to injure.

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Sega has cancelled the Wii U version of Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Its release had been in doubt for a while now, with Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford stating last month that it wasn’t his call.

"I think [port developer Demiurge Studios] did amazing work,” he said.

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The release of Aliens: Colonial Marines on the Wii U is now in doubt.

The game was supposed to be coming to Nintendo’s console by the end of this month, but Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford doesn't seem so sure that it will see the light of day.

"We'll see," he told GameSpot. "That's not our call. I think [port developer Demiurge Studios] did amazing work. I think it's really cool, but Sega's got to figure that out.

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There have been layoffs at Aliens: Colonial Marines co-developer TimeGate Studios, the developer has confirmed.

Timegate president Adel Chaveleh told Polygon that the studio was preparing for the next-generation transition and new business models.

"Today, we had to make the difficult decision to let go of some great game developers,” he said.

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Gearbox took money intended for the development of Aliens: Colonial Marines and invested it in the development of Borderlands 2 and Duke Nukem Forever, claims an alleged Sega staffer.

The accusation was made on a blog called Sega Awakens, supposedly written by an employee of the publisher who uses the pen name Bryan Danielson. Destructoid also claims to have independently verified the information.

“Gearbox stole from SEGA, they robbed us, lied to us about the game, and tried to get another company to make the game instead,” wrote Danielson.

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Someone identifying themselves as a Gearbox developer has claimed that the threat of legal action from publisher Sega pushed Aliens: Colonial Marines out the door before it was properly ready.

Identifying as throwawayacm on Reddit and claiming to have worked on the game for 18-months, the supposed developer said that constant delays since the announcement of the game six years ago forced Gearbox to outsource a good portion of its development and ultimately release an unpolished product.

“Initially, the plan was for TimeGate to take the majority of campaign, Gearbox would take multiplayer, Demiurge and Nerve would handle DLC and various other focused tasks,” they wrote.

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Pitting players against the universe's deadliest killing machine, the Xenomorph, Aliens: Colonial Marines is the official video game continuation to one of Sci-Fi’s most renowned movie franchises.

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A former Gearbox employee is claiming that the majority of Aliens: Colonial Marines wasn’t developed by Gearbox Studios but instead by Section 8 studio TimeGate.

According to gaming sleuth Superannuation, forum posts by a former Gearbox developer in May last year revealed the truth about the game’s development.

“Hate to say it, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high for Colonial Marines,” reads the post.

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Colonial Marines is a very good shooter that features terrific competitive and cooperative multiplayer, but the narrow conventions of its parent make its ride an overly-familiar one.

You are Corporal Christopher Winter, a duty bound and levelheaded soldier tasked with trekking through the dirty pig iron and crushed ventilation duct filled decks of the USS Sulaco in search of a certain Ellen Ripley and Dwayne Hicks, among others. That may be a familiar start, but there is a tasteful lack of focus placed on the major characters from James Cameron’s film here, despite Colonial Marines being billed as a direct sequel to Aliens.

But what are those iconic characters replaced with? Winter himself is predominantly a blank canvas protagonist, and the plot and character arcs are typical military, and do nothing to develop on the strong thematic foundation of the films. Xenomorphs aren’t a metaphor for much at all in Colonial Marines other than humanity’s innate lust to stamp out the archaic trend of shiny black electronics in favour of matte white and brushed-silver Macbooks. However, the dialogue is robust and the voice acting is great throughout.

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The trailer takes viewers on a vertical ride through the USS Sulaco with US Colonial Marines fighting for their lives against an incoming wave of Xenomorphs.

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Sega and Gearbox have released a gameplay trailer showing the Colonial Marines tearing up some xenomorphs.

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The system requirements Gearbox Software's Aliens: Colonial Marines are out:

Minimum Specs:
Operating System: Windows XP SP3
Processor: 2 GHz Intel Dual Core Processor
RAM: 2GB RAM (XP), 2GB RAM (Vista)
HD: 20GB free hard disk space
Optical Drive: DVD
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8500/ATI Radeon HD 2600 (256 minimum)

Recommended Specs:
Operating System: Windows XP SP3/Vista/Windows 7
Processor: 2.3 GHz Intel Quad CoreProcessor
RAM: 2GB RAM. HD
20GB free hard disk space
Optical Drive: DVD
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX560/ATI Radeon HD 5850 (512 minimum)

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The Alien Hive is a dark, imposing place of fear you won't soon forget, says Gearbox.

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A small preview of the game's story, set between the second and third movies.

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Explore the ruins of Hadley's Hope and many other areas following the events in the Aliens movie.

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Come February you'll be able to explore the ruins of Hadley's Hope and many other areas following the events in the Aliens movie.

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In Survivor Mode, players must work together to hold their ground against swarms of xenomorphs and fight until the last player is left.

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Aliens: Colonial Marines is the canonical sequel to James Cameron's Aliens film, according to Gearbox.

Speaking at New York Comic-Con, Gearbox head Randy Pitchford explained that the game slotted between Aliens and the ill-received Alien 3.

“There was some story you felt was supposed to happen after [Aliens], and Aliens 3 was not it,” he said.

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Female marines will feature in Aliens: Colonial Marines’ co-op and multiplayer modes, Gearbox has announced.

The plan was always to include playable female characters, claimed Gearbox head honcho Randy Pitchford, and this announcement was early because of Internet pressure.

In July, an online petition spang up demanding the inclusion of female characters in the game’s multiplayer.

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Escape is a new competitive multiplayer mode in Aliens: Colonial Marines where you can choose to play as a Xeno or marine soldier.

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The petition’s goal is the insertion of customisable female characters into the game’s competitive and co-op multiplayer modes before the game is released in February next year.

Organiser Melissa K has set a target of 1000 signatures. Once this number is reached, the petition will presumably be presented to Gearbox as well as Colonial Marines publisher Sega.

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No doubt about it, the marines in Avatar are very similar to those found in Halo. Rest assured, these fans were on the internet within minutes registering their disgust.

The only problem, of course, is that the marines in Halo are very similar to those found in the 1986 movie Aliens – one directed by none other than James Cameron. Rightly, Cameron pointed this out, and Bungie squeaked in agreement.

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Our presentation began with Gearbox pointing out how much the 20th Century Fox property has influenced videogames – everything from Duke Nukem to Halo has cribbed from Ridley Scott’s playbook.

Colonial Marines is set shortly after the events of the third movie. A Colonial Marines Search and Rescue squad has been sent to investigate the crash site of the USS Sulaco and search for Ellen Ripley.

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Publisher SEGA has today announced that Aliens: Colonial Marines is anticipating an autumn 2012 (NZT) release. In the game, players will control a squad of marines as they try to survive against the deadly aliens infesting the derelict U.S.S. Sulaco.

“To Gearbox Software and its peers throughout the industry, Aliens is one of the most influential science fiction properties of all time,” said Pitchford.

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