Gearbox Studios Involved in Massive Embezzlement Scheme, Alleged Whistleblower Claims

Jim Sterling, outspoken Reviews Editor of Destructoid has recently pulled together a slew of information concerning Gearbox Studios and its most recent title, Aliens: Colonial Marines.

An anonymous writer going by the alias “Bryan Danielson” has been posting regularly on the SEGA Awakens blog. Danielson claims to be an insider at SEGA, and blames three entities for the failure of Aliens: Colonial Marines – SEGA itself, Gearbox Studios and TimeGate Studios.

Danielson throws slag at his own company, SEGA, for not canceling the game when it should have been canceled back in 2008. He said that someone at the official level concluded that development on the game should be kick started again, and things were already doomed for failure from that point on. This created a scenario that forced players to pay for SEGA’s mishandling of the game.

He then attacks TimeGate for simply doing such a bad job. TimeGate may have been inadvertently pushed into making the game alone, but this still doesn’t excuse their work: "Granted, I heard about their claims about Gearbox having full creative control, but they should have tried to show their side of the argument and fight more if they had problems with Gearbox's creative control and creative direction,” Danielson wrote.

He finally addresses the main culprits: Gearbox Studios and their head honcho, Randy Pitchford.

“Gearbox stole from SEGA, they robbed us, lied to us about the game, and tried to get another company to make the game instead. Let's see where the funding went shall we? Everyone said the game went to both Borderlands games, but Duke Nukem Forever gets a mention as well, but it's pushed out of the spotlight, because people want to forget about that game, and I don't blame them! Duke Nukem Forever had a big impact on Aliens: Colonial Marines as well,” Danielson said.

This leaves a number of people out of money and inside of a company that has marred its reputation to the umpteenth degree.

Danielson concludes, "Where is our money Randy? We should get sales from Borderlands 1 and 2, since it was our money that funded it."