Sega has released documents that shed a new light in the fallout of the Aliens: Colonial Marines class action lawsuit.
Aliens: Colonial Marines, developed by Gearbox and published by Sega, is one of the worst critically received games of 2013. Critics and fans were angered by the gap between what was promised in the game’s marketing, and the final product.
Sega was forced to admit that the marketing campaign was misleading after the intervention of the UK Advertising Standard Agency. Buyers went on to file a class action lawsuit against Sega and Gearbox. Sega proposed a $ 1.25 million payout to all claimants, while Gearbox sought to be removed from the lawsuit. Gearbox alleged that Sega was responsible for the game’s misleading marketing. However, today’s documents dispute this account.
The documents reveal that Gearbox president Randy Pitchford was being put forward as the public face of the game, working directly with Sega’s marketing people. However, these documents also share that Gearbox, especially Pitchford, did not work with Sega on the campaign. There were several instances that Randy made announcements without asking Sega, including on press events, panel discussions, website posts, and more.
Relations had gone so poorly that Sega PR manager Matt Eyre wrote an internal email complaining about leaks of Aliens: Colonial Marines being a result of Pitchford ‘doing whatever the fuck he likes.’
The documents also reveal a strange story on how Gearbox and Sega pursued marketing to their target audience. You can read some of these odd details here.
