Ein anonymer Autor, der im Blog SEGA Awakens regelmäßig Unternehmensdetails ausplaudert, äußert sich nun auch zu den fast schon endlosen Streitereien und Problemen rund um Aliens: Colonial Marines, wobei er eine neue Perspektive bietet und SEGA, TimeGate und Gearbox in unterschiedlichem Maße für das Desaster mitverantwortlich macht. Die Hauptschuld ortet er jedoch bei Gearbox.
Die Informationen des Bloggers wurden mittlerweile auch von anderen Quellen bestätigt, weshalb ich sie hier mit Ihnen teilen möchte. In seinem Blog behauptet der Mann, der unter dem Pseudonym „Bryan Danielson" schreibt, dass die zahllosen Gerüchte, die gleich nahc der Veröffentlichung von Colonial Marines zu kursieren begannen, zu „99% wahr" sind, doch er möchte den jeweiligen Anteil an der Schuld korrekt zuweisen.
In einem wirklich interessanten Eintrag teilt der Autor die Schuld auf die drei Hauptakteure auf und erläutert genau, welche Fehler SEGA, TimeGate und Gearbox begingen. Er fängt dabei mit TimeGate an, dem Studio, das einen großen Teil der Entwicklung von Aliens übernahm, wenn auch unter Aufsicht/in Zusammenarbeit mit Gearbox.
"TimeGate is at fault for: Wanting to even take on this project and their shoddy work“, schreibt Danielson. "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.
"Honestly, I thought they should have risked some arguments and the possibility of losing the contract, if they had problems with the project like the Reddit poster said. However, there still is a chance of their claims being a lie or a half truth, but as I said above, TimeGate has some responsibility."
Der Aufdecker behauptete, dass TimeGate den größten Teil der von einem Team bei Gearbox geleisteten Projektarbeit in den Mistkübel wandern ließ, kann dies aber nicht genau belegen. Es ist im bereich des Möglichen, dass TimeGate rein rechtlich Gearbox’ Arbeit nicht verwenden durfte, aber es ist auch durchaus wahrscheinlich, dass das neue Studio aus irgendeinem anderen Grund mit der Entwicklung ganz von vorne begann.
"SEGA is at fault for: Announcing the project in 2007 when no work was done at all“, meint er weiter continued. "In my views, a game project should be announced publicly when it is 50-60% done, so you won't have to wait 6 years for a game that turns out to be shit.
"SEGA is also responsible for not permanently cancelling the game in 2008. I don't know who found out about the mishandling of funds by Gearbox, but [canceling Colonial Marines] had to be one of the few right decisions the board has done, or this person is one of the few board members who knew what they were doing (from what I heard, this person may have left the board a while ago when SEGA decided to start the project again). This game should have been cancelled permanently, and the final product is undeniable proof of it.
"Despite that, I believe SEGA wanted to try to get some of the money back, at the fans' expense. So another blame for SEGA there. SEGA should have also watched the project and development a lot better, because there was a lot of warning signs that said this was a disaster in the making. So whoever was assigned to watch Gearbox and the game has some responsibility too, unless the board was forcing him to do it. SEGA and their lawyers also have some blame on the wording of the contract too, but more on that later."
Der Blogeintrag wendet sich dann dem Hauptevent zu, dem Beitrag und der Verantwortung von Gearbox Software und seines CEO Randy Pitchford. Mit eindeutigen Worten wird das Studio beschuldigt, den Publisher beraubt und ihm ins Gesicht gelogen zu haben.
"Now here is the company that should get most of the blame: Gearbox Software and 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."
Ein Artikel in Gamasutra wird benützt, um diese Behauptung zu untermauern. Bei dem fraglichen Artikel handelt es sich um ein Interview mit Pitchford, in dem er erklärt, wie sein Studio die Rechte an Duke Nukem Forever erhielt.
"It clearly shows that Pitchford and Gearbox wanted to focus heavily on Duke Nukem Forever, but how would they get the money to hire some of the 3D Realms team and even buy the intellectual property? Sure, they made a lot from Borderlands, but guess where they got the money to fund Borderlands in the first place? Yup, SEGA.
"So Gearbox essentially lied to SEGA, mishandled funds, broke agreements and contractual obligations to work on other projects, didn't want to work on a game they were contractually obligated to work on and gave it to another team, poor organization and direction on ACM, took on too many projects from different companies at once, and other things that we may not even know about. Hell, part of me believes that Gearbox wanted this thing delayed as much as possible so they can get more funding money to embezzle from SEGA."
Danielson schließt seinen Blogeintrag damit ab, dass er erklärt, dass ihm Gerüchte zu Ohren gekommen seien, dass SEGA rechtliche Schritte unternehmen könnte, aber er gesteht ein, dass der Vertrag diese Möglichkeit ausschließen könnte. Gearbox musste anscheinend nur ein Spiel mit dem Titel Aliens: Colonial Marines liefern, um den Vertrag zu erfüllen, was ja auch passierte. Er meint weiter, SEGA hätte besser daran getan, A:CM abzublasen und das Studio vor Gericht zu zerren, anstatt die Fans für die getätigten Investitionen bezahlen zu lassen. Der Autor deutet sogar an, SEGA hätte Borderlands herausbringen sollen, da das Unternehmen so viel dafür bezahlt hat.
"In this case, what happened clearly was SEGA had a decent eye on the project, rightfully cancelled it, when they saw the problems, then someone decided to restart the project, leading to this massive mess“, meint er abschließend. "Where is our money Randy? We should get sales from Borderlands 1 and 2, since it was our money that funded it."
That eventual Aliens: Colonial Marines post [SEGA Awakens]
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