The Wii U seems to have dodged a bullet with Aliens: Colonial Marines as new reports discover that both Sega and Gearbox are to be sued over misleading trailers that ‘bore little resemblance’ to actual gameplay. According to a class action lawsuit, the two companies falsely advertised the game at trade shows such as PAX and E3, which were unrepresentative of the end product.
The highly anticipated first person shooter game was met with scathing reviews from various critics and fans across the globe, and now it appears Sega and Gearbox may pay for their mistakes. The lawsuit, which is filed by Edelson LLC on behalf of plaintiff Damion Perrine, is seeking damages for fans who bought the title under false pretenses.
The claim, reported via Polygon states: “Each of the ‘actual gameplay’ demonstrations purported to show consumers exactly what they would be buying: a cutting edge video game with very specific features and qualities. Unfortunately for their fans, Defendants never told anyone — consumers, industry critics, reviewers, or reporters — that their ‘actual gameplay’ demonstration advertising campaign bore little resemblance to the retail product that would eventually be sold to a large community of unwitting purchasers.”
The case also sees a tweet published by Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford noting the discrepancies between the demo and game. Additionally, Sega had to publish a disclaimer on the UK trailer after a complaint was filed to the Advertising Standards Agency earlier this year. As it stands, Gearbox and Sega has yet to comment.
Feel kinda guilty buying borderlands 2 now, even though it was great, if I knew Gearbox sunk Aliens money into it, I would of waited to it was dirt cheap on steam and not buy it day 1. I was so pumped for Aliens Wii U :(
Oh well, I guess they’ll get what’s coming to them so this won’t happen in the future.
I wonder why people didn’t sue Sony for Killzone on the PS3 or the Uncharted games then. They generated all of the trailers for these games on high end computers and look miles better than what the actual game was.
That’s because how the game LOOKS isn’t as important as how the game PLAYS, which is a much bigger point in this particular case.
Whoever is suing them should kill themselves for being stupid, how about everybody sues McDonald’s for false advertising, I have never seen a big mac look so nice and delicious as the advertisement.
why the fuck is your name “McDonalds”?
@ your a. because he’s mental moron.
HOW about SEGA create condomeded 3 crap that’s long word to spell :\
SEGA should bring that on XBOX one >:)
yaay angry bamboons! have been shut down for riping off angry birds :)
That’s what they deserve. Thank god wii u didn’t get this.
Good!
Yay SegASS is getting sued for the shitty game they happily published! Die motherfucker! Your time will one day come!
You’re right – they PUBLISHED it. The developers weren’t then, the one who’s guilty is GearBox for using the money Sega gave them to make this a good game in other games instead.
Indeed, but Sega as the publisher fail to do what he was meant to do, checking that their money were well spended and that the game footage published were concordant with the actual game, it was not.
Both companies will be sued for false advertising, but Sega still could sue gearbox for not doing the game that Sega paid them to do and many other things like theft and misappropriation of funds.
Honestly, i like Borderlands, but good.
There is no version of Aliens Wii U ? That means it is the best version
They should use that in there defense.
Well played…
Good. Sega has their heads extraordinarily far up their asses right now. Thinking they’re “funny” with random goat videos, or the “masters of secrecy”, “I know you guys want the announcement of a new boxed Sonic game, but FUCK you guys. New iOS game lolol”.
I admit I’m in a mood right now. I just really can’t stand Sega anymore. Before they were utterly atrocious with all their games, and now that they’re decent again, they think they’re all that.
Thinking they’re “funny” with random goat videos, or the “masters of secrecy”
It’s called taking the piss out of yourself mate they know everything gets leaked to do with sonic and they were making a joke, and the goat video was for April fools Y’know when everyone makes jokes.
and from a buissness perspective why would they make a massive sonic game when a small cheapo iOS game has the potential to make loads of money from micro transactions. seeing as they are in a bit of a financial pinch they would be wise to do that rather than make a huge investment into a massive multi-platform sonic game.
They havemt been the most humble of businesses (leave that to the indie devs) but you are just nitpicking
Excellent, The Gearbox Foundation and Sega Kingdom will pay for their treason…
This was a disgusting abuse of customer trust – absolutely well deserved!
I was REALLY looking forward ro Aliens.
Hell, I would have bought the shit if it had come out on WiiU, I just REALLY wanted a good Aliens game.
I hope they suffer for this cluster fuck.
good two shitty companies that deserve it
Wow, you can sue for anything these days. Sega didn’t put my favorite Sonic song in the last game. I think I’ll sue them.
Can you feel the sunshine?
Have to give you points for that one.
man so this guy felt that jaded over a $60 game he went all law suit with it? Now THAT’S the american way. I’m not as versed in the differences between trailer and gameplay, but this seems like a stretch to take to court. I’m sure the companies will settle to save reputation. I was actually interested in a Wii U version, albeit not for full price after the horrid reviews.
No, the game was blatant false advertising, and it’s not the first time devs and publishers have done this.
But hopefully this’ll be a nice wake up call for devs/pubs to stop fucking around, and tresting the consumer like we’re retarded, and make shitty game to cash in on money.
it might not have been the first time, but definitly the worst and biggest difference i have ever seen. its like they accidentally shipped an alpha prototype from 3 years ago, instead of the polished game we’d seen footage of… the lawsuit is well deserved.
Misappropriation of funds is a serious offense. This was not “just” another shitty game.
‘Murica
america dumbass
The only country in the world: ‘Murica.
Bomba! Good news.
I hope they burn for their deceit.
Why are they making a big deal about this so what it’s just a stupid game, I understand that gearbox deserves this, but not sega.
Sega as the publisher fail to do what he was meant to do, checking that their money were well spended and that the game footage used in the comercials were concordant with the actual game, it was not.
Both companies will be sued for false advertising, but Sega still could sue gearbox for not doing the game that Sega paid them to do and many other things like theft and misappropriation of funds.
I knew this game was overrated right from the start lol and look where it ended up
My boyfriend bought this game when it was released, only to be completely let down by the game as a whole. I was told how the trailer looked really good etc, and we looked online and saw the amount of complaints there was.
If I remember I think there was problems with the saving format as well.
I’m glad something is being done. You expect that a game so hyped up and at a not-so-cheap price you would receive something worthwhile. Complete false advertising just to gain some profits. If that’s what companies are resorting to it’s really sad.
every developer & publisher can get sued then if this goes through :D
its actually gearbox’s fault not sega, gearbox “worked” on on aliens but half-assed it while working on something else
“In February of 2013, an anonymous whistle blower reported to Destructoid that Gearbox had been taking people and resources off Aliens: Colonial Marines to put them to work on Borderlands, and yet was still collecting full payments from Sega as if they were working on Aliens: Colonial Marines. When Sega discovered this misconduct they canceled Colonial Marines, which led to the games protracted development; “At some point in 2008, Sega temporarily pulled the plug on the game […] They caught wind of Gearbox shifting resources despite still collecting milestone checks as if the team were full size and lying to Sega AND 2K about the number of people working on each project. This led to the round of layoffs at Gearbox in late 2008.”[42]
The game drew additional controversy due to the fact that much of the game’s development was not by Gearbox Software, but was outsourced to other developers in order to compensate for mismanagement on behalf of Gearbox. While Sega initially denied that any such outsourcing occurred, sources claimed that developers Demiurge Studios and Nerve Software were responsible for the game’s downloadable content, while TimeGate Studios was responsible for the majority of the game’s campaign, and were unable to create the planned Beta version on schedule despite several delays. This caused the game to be rushed through redesigns, certification and shipping, despite being in a largely unfinished state.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliens:_Colonial_Marines
Well damn… so the short version is… Gearbox pucked over Sega greatly.
You know, GBX also left out a few key features in BL2 that they promised they would be adding in. For very stupid reasons.
It’s caused a lot of backlash on their forums.
I miss the “beta version” because, honestly, I like the game, but it’s just a really strange story-type scenario
HAHAHAHA
I hope Gearbox’s misuse of funds doesn’t end up killing Sega. I like Sega as a publisher, and would rather not seem them go down because of how Gearbox handled things.
Sonic 06 and ACM both game in which the beta version look and worked better than the final product…I´m start seeing a patron in sega’s luck
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