Perhaps everyone should have seen this coming, but both the developer and publisher of Aliens: Colonial Marines have been hit with a class action lawsuit. On what grounds? That both defendants falsely represented the game at trade shows prior to its release.
According to Polygon, the suit was filed in the Northern District of California court by law firm Edelson LLC, representing the plaintiff, Damion Perrine. The suit claims that a number of Californian civil and business codes were broken when the game that was shown at E3 and the Penny Arcade Expo(s) ended up not being the actuall product.
Much has been said already about the demos that Gearbox co-founder Randy Pitchford claimed was legit, and they are at the center of this lawsuit as well. Which bares little in common with the Aliens: Colonial Marines that eventually found itself on store shelves.
Another key point of the lawsuit is how, according to Polygon, by sending members of the press review code that was under embargo that lifted the day of the game's launch, those who pre-ordered the game had no idea of the discrepancies that awaited them.
So the suit is looking to compensate everyone who bought a copy before its release date, which is basically anyone who pre-ordered. Sorry people who simply bought the game after the fact and just want a refund because it sucked.
According to Edelson LLC's Ben Thomassen, when speaking to Polygon:
"We think the video game industry is no different than any other that deals with consumers: if companies like Sega and Gearbox promise their customers one thing but deliver something else, then they should be held accountable for that decision."
