Randy Pitchford to “lose a huge amount of money” over Aliens Colonial Marines backlash

BeefJack Writes: Via the medium of Twitter, Randy Pitchford has asked that people only share positive opinions with him, after the Aliens Colonial Marines backlash.

[ShugaCane]

Next time he'll think twice before lying to the consumers.

[Blacktric]

"This all emerged after it was noticed this morning that Mr Pitchford was only replying to positive tweets about the game, coming from new accounts with only 1 or 2 tweets. It did not take very long for Twitter to allege that these accounts had been set up specifically to counter the flood of negative feedback on the game, which Mr Pitchford has since denied"

These companies are a goddamn joke. No respect left for the consumers.

[Rupee]

To be fair it is his personal account. You can still bitch at the gearbox twitter account.

[Bimkoblerutso]

All these companies just need to stop the BS. You can't cram DRM down our throats, incorporate seedy microtransactions into all your games, and flat-out lie to consumers about what a finished product is going to be and NOT expect there to be backlash.

I get the impression that we have more to blame on the publishers than the developers, but if developers were less inclined to so readily sellout, there wouldn't be nearly as much corporate involvement in the first place.

I'm sorry to say it, but both the publishers AND DEVELOPERS have exhausted all of my sympathy at this point.

[josephayal]

This game was worth EVERY penny. TBH This game is actually really well done

[Zha1tan]

@rupee

It was no longer a personal account when he marketed the game through his twitter and is also replying to only positive feedback through twitter.

He is simply displaying massive amounts of contempt.

[1nsaint]

@josephayal nice try randy

[knowyourstuff]

I don't get how he's going to lose money... did he invest his own money? Why would he do that? And if he invested his own money, as a developer, he's in the one place where he can actually ensure the game is A GOOD GAME! He wouldn't be in this financial mess if he didn't put up his own money for a game he didn't care was good or not.

I doubt he invested his own money. What he meant by "lose money" is likely the lack of a bonus he'll get this year, which means he isn't technically "losing" anything, but then again, I wouldn't put spin language past this guy.

[dredgewalker]

Looks it's pitchforks for Randy Pitchford! I wonder how what will Sega do with Randy with how he used the Alien budget for the Borderlands games.

[Root]

You know whats more hilarious about this....he's still got to go through this after the Wii U version launches

He's probably going to try and hold off until then before he tries to apologize and stuff. No point trying to make amends now when he'll have another s*** storm in a month

[fei-hung]

If the War Z creators game got taken off Steam, then this game should be taken off too.

We should email Sony and Xbox if they are selling the full game on their stores and ask them to remove it.

Sega should sue Gearboxes ass for spending development money for A:CM on Borderlands 2.

People who bought the game should be able to return it and get a full refund.

This guy has sky rocketed to doucheville in record time and he should admit to his faults and take responsibility.

[SilentNegotiator]

War Z lied *directly* on their Steam page about features not in the game.

[Linsolv]

WarZ also stole a number of art assets from other games.

Also, Randy Pitchford may or may not be a resident of "Doucheville"--but he's not someone different than he was before now, considering he did the same thing with DNF, and he wasn't someone different before the DNF debacle either.

He's just a man, don't expect a miracle. I don't dislike him, from what I've seen--but I have also tried to keep in mind that he can act like a heinous smart-aleck.

[zeal0us]

Good, Good

[solar]

He also lied about the PC version of Borderlands 1 and then got shitty with customers complaints. Screw him.

[KnightRobby]

His previous career was a Magician. This is what they do. They lie all the time!

[Megaton]

No he won't. He'll just try harder to not get caught.

[Commandar_Shepard]

Do people seriously not see that the first letter of every sentence I wrote spelled It's Awful?

I
T
S

A
W
F
U
L

Because nobody in the right mind would praise this game.

[killcycle]

They disagreed because your comment was useless and a waste of time to read.

[Godmars290]

If it wasn't for the demo there wouldn't be as much as an issue as there is. Gearbox's people looking critics and reviewers right in the eye and saying that was only an early build is the issue. If they had just put out something more honest, and broken, there wouldn't be tons of stories and complaints.

[dboyman]

Next Time Gearbox is hired to a game they were supposed to develop themselves, they actually do it, not send it off to another developer. Its like Call of Duty Declassified all over again...

[MizTv]

Agree
Didn't bioware do that whith dragon age?

[CalvinKlein]

I never had hopes for this game as I kniw it would be garbage but this guy needs to just shut up and take the bad opinions that he deserves to hear. Its not like hopeful gamers were responsible for releasing this garbage. Sometimes I feel gamers are immature cry babies, other time I think the developers are morons with their heads up their own ass. This is the latter.

AHAH so he will only comment back to the new twitter accouns tha are praising the game. In other words he will resopng to paid positive comments and ignore people who bought the game. HAAHHA more like SHITBOX.

[BinaryMind]

I can't imagine he plans to pay back Sega the $60 million he stole from them.

[lovegames718]

Good for him and i hope this happens to every other bs dev. and publisher that hypes garbage to death then trys to distance itself from it when it flops!!!!!! Gearbox shame on you and we know contrary to what you say you had a big hand in dev. Alien Colonial Marines Sp and MP.

[zerocrossing]

This is the response I got from Randy on Twitter.

(Me) Not looking to get blocked but I have a few questions regarding A:CM. Why does the demo showcased not represent the actual game?

(Randy Pitchford) I cannot address that in Twitter.

Yeah, I bet he can't. This isn't going away no matter how much Randy, Gearbox and everyone else involved try to hide.

[Veni Vidi Vici]

To be fair, he'd probably need like a million character limit on Twitter to explain all the things that went wrong. But I see your point. He should have explained it somewhere else by now.

[MostJadedGamer]

I can address this. A demo is meant to put a product in the best possible light. A demo is meant to sell games nothing else.

[zerocrossing]

No, a demo is supposed to "demonstrate" the product, it lets the consumer know what to expect from the final product so they know what they are getting and can make an informed decision based on that knowledge.

It's not meant to mislead them... If the product is really any good there would be no need for any lies or falsehoods.

The simple fact is, consumers bought the game wanting what was shown in the demo, that didn't happen and now everyone is pissed, and quite rightly so, IMO.

[BISHOP-BRASIL]

It's even worse if you try and justify demos as ads... It's illegal to create either false or deceptive advertising.

[Linsolv]

This.

You guys can feel free to disagree, whatever. But video packages and demos are marketing tools.

If you still trust marketing departments (that is to say, the people who create and use marketing tools) then you deserve what you get. They're cheats and liars and it's their job to be cheats and liars. I don't trust or like about half the commentors on N4G to use their heads (not unlike YouTube here, sometimes), but at least some of you should know better.

If you're going to listen to anything other than a person you trust telling you their opinion on the subject of a game, then there's a chance you'll get burned, and people need to learn that. It's a risk you take.

You can all be mad, because it is dishonest, but it's not unexpected for people who want your money to try to get you to give them your money. This reaction is a bit much. Not "get over it and go home there's nothing to see," just "dial it back a bit guys."

[Picnic]

It's a trailer that's meant to do that. That's where they can put 'not representative of actual gameplay' on it.

On the other hand, they could argue that there were creative reasons to change it from the demo.

I intend to at least rent the game. It's Aliens, lots of other games copied the films.
It will be interesting for a rental if only to see their interpretation.

[Norrison]

Another War Z case here.

[mastershredder]

The guy is the gaming industry's biggest weasel (currently). He deservers every last bit of criticism he gets. That's what you get in this industry ESPECIALLY when you represent and boast the way he has AND makes himself open to social media venues.

I'm telling ya, he's Burke. He just needs to get snatched by alien and taken to the hive for some face hugg'n action.

[BanBrother]

HOLY MONKEYBALLS!!! I never expected it to be this serious. LMFAO I was quick to judge and be angry, but I can just imagine him whimpering like a dog, so I sorta feel bad now lol. What Iz deez fings coowd feewings?

[FantasyStar]

Times like this. A refund is in order. Why aren't people demanding refunds? Devs like these can keep getting away with pushing out garbage because they know the most that'll happen is some angry keyboard warriors will toss a fit then quietly disappear into the internet.

Go demand a refund, the evidence of false advertising and misrepresentation of the quality of service/product is clear as day. If you bought from Amazon, they'll help you out on that.

[Robotronfiend]

Amazon is completely awesome about game returns. They even pay for return shipping with print out labels. They took back both Rage and Naughty Bear from me - the only two games I have ever found to literally be unplayable. NB had a glitch that corrupted saves and locked you in a menu. Rage's graphical issues and texture pop gave me serious motion sickness after 30 min of game play, even on a double dose of Dramamine.

[Cam977]

And they're refunding me for AC3:L! I love them!

[isa_scout]

I actually e-mailed Gearbox demanding a refund, and they told me I needed to e-mail Sega, so I e-mailed Sega demanding a refund, sega tells me I need to return it to Gamestop(yeah right) since that's where I bought it, Gamestop wouldn't give me a refund because it had been opened. I got tired of arguing so I traded it in toward tomb raider and got 36.00 for it. I may be out almost 30.00 after buying it, but damn it feels nice just knowing that PoS game isn't in my house anymore.

[grassyknoll]

You actually go to the point of sale, which would be Gamespot in your case. Sega wasn't lying about that!

[Dark_Overlord]

Shame you aren't in the UK, they can't refuse you a refund. If they do try however a quick phone call to trading standards helps immensely ;)

[MadLad]

He seems like a nice guy, but he is a greasy businessman. Has show this before even Colonial Marines.

I like the developer. Brothers in Arms in one of my favorite series. Loved Borderlands 2.

That doesn't make what they did here acceptable, nor am I going to defend them in any way.

They deserve all the hate that comes from this. Don't do it again, and they can, slowly, build up that fan trust they had garnered over the last few years. They certainly don't have it for the time being.

[Robotronfiend]

Greasy is the best word for him.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

Yeah he probably will lose a huge amount of money after Sega sues his ass for taking their money to fund Borderlands 2.
The guy deserves it he's a complete coward and a liar.
Just the fact that he completely passes off any criticism about Aliens and instead accepts and recommends only positive comments about his crappy game.
This guys career should be over after all of these lies and his complete lack of acknowledgement from hurt consumers of a shoddy product.

[Christopher]

Actually, they would have been sued by Sega if they didn't finish the game at the time they did is my understanding. While not giving Gearbox any 'you're okay with putting out a crappy game' here, they had to do that instead of losing even more money by getting shafted by Sega for breach of contract.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

To be fair they had plenty of time to make the game, they kept asking for more delays from Sega whilst still taking their cash and using it for Borderlands.
So in the end (from the evidence that's been released) it seems as though Sega have every right to sue them. Gearbox should of fought it out with Sega instead of releasing the disgrace that is Aliens Colonial Marines on the public and taking their hard earned money based on a lie.
Here is an update on the situation:
http://www.destructoid.com/...

[Ron_Danger]

I'd hate to be in his shoes. He just got done receiving a crazy number of awards for Borderlands 2, then this happens. I have no opinion on the game since I haven't played it, but I have read that the WiiU version is supposed to be the best version. It's unfortunate how easy it is for developers to hype their games and at the same time being equally easy for gamers to attack them because of social media.

[zerocrossing]

"the WiiU version is supposed to be the best version"

It just sounds to me like they are trying to sucker even more consumers into buying their brocken, buggy mess of a game...

[Ron_Danger]

I realize that, it's just they could include all the patches and fix/ optimize any botched code. Either way I'm no trying to defend the game. It was never on my purchase radar.

[Robotronfiend]

But if they already bought a WiiU, they're probably hungry for another half decent AAA title.

[MostJadedGamer]

"But if they already bought a WiiU, they're probably hungry for another half decent AAA title."

Beggars cann't be choosers. WiiU owners have to take whatever scraps they can get.

[zerocrossing]

@MostJadedGamer

Godamnit, will you Wii U haters just go away? Get off the Internet shoo, shoo!.

Honestly, they're like bloody scavengers looking for a quick bash at Nintendo whenever the opportunity may arise .

Nobody's perfect, Xbox live should be free, Vita is doing poorly, this is fact so shut up bashing a company when the other two aren't much better.

[cyguration]

As much as I would love to champion the Wii U version...
this happened:
http://www.cinemablend.com/...

I imagine the Wii U version might be on hold so that they can attempt to bring it up to parity (as best they can) to the E3 demo.

But in this scenario, it'd be best not to hold out on hope.

[Freddy_Millz1]

Pictures worth a thousand words...

[MetalProxy]

lol that pic dont even look photoshoped.

[Roper316]

what a surprise another garbage game tied to a movie franchise, never thought I would see that /s.

If a game is tied to a movie, tv show or any other main stream form of media 9 out of 10 times ( possibly 10 out of 10 ) the game will be complete garbage in all aspects like, controls, graphics, story etc etc...

That has been the case since the ET game back on the Atari 2600 if you are old enough to remember that POS game.

[Ron_Danger]

So true. Developing a game for such an iconic franchise was prettying a losing battle from the get go. They should've just made a game in the Alien universe but didn't try to tie anything in with the movies

[The_Klank]

I dunno if that's true, the demo that was going around before the games release had everyone really digging it. I don't know what happened between now and then but if that demo would of been indicative of the final game I can see the game getting 7s easily.

[Imalwaysright]

AvP2 is one of the best FPS I ever played.

[Sucitta]

it's true. it's been this way for 25 years.

people never learn.

[MasterD919]

He's a good salesman, but a horrible liar. I generally like Gearbox, but these are shady tactics or a sign of laziness at its best.

I'd bet that Gearbox is going to work on Borderlands 3 (to make up for losses) much sooner than they were before now.

[ApolloTheBoss]

I don't know if I care about BL3 at this point. I'm sure as hell not buying it new.

[MasterD919]

I actually think that Borderlands is going to be the only thing that continues to redeem Gearbox's mistakes. Therefore, BL3 would probably be fantastic.

Borderlands 2 was certainly an improvement over the first. If BL3 comes out like Aliens did (unfinished, sloppy and poor quality all around) then I would probably lose all faith in Gearbox.

[Its9000orMore]

@MasterD919 No offense, but how could you possibly be thinking about how great BL3 may be after this? We have to show that we can't be toyed around with, and if you want to immediately jump back on the Gearbox bandwagon and let this happen again, then be my guest. I fail to see how BL3 will make up for this mess and I hope you take the higher road.

[baldulf]

Sega should sue Gearbox.

[glennco]

Sega may be at fault as well for unrealistic constraints. Budget or time wise. Not saying they are but it is often the case, the company supplying the money makes the rules.

[porkChop]

Budget or time constraints? Have you not read the comments from one of the developers? Gearbox was taking people off of Aliens and putting them onto Borderlands, they lied to Sega about having a full team working on Aliens to get full milestone checks, then used that money to fund Borderlands.

Then Sega figured out what was going on and cancelled the game in 2008. This lead to the 2008 layoffs at Gearbox. Randy Pitchford being the snake oil salesman he is, convinced Sega to pick the project up again. Once they did, Gearbox started doing the EXACT SAME THING ALL OVER AGAIN. They used Aliens just to fund development of Borderlands 1 and 2.

The game has been in development since the start of the generation, so clearly time constraints weren't the problem. Considering the budget funds were enough to fund their other projects, clearly budget wasn't the problem either. The problem was just Gearbox thinking they could scam Sega and get away with it. Clearly their plan didn't work.

_____________

I personally will not support this kind of shit, I won't ever purchase another Gearbox product again. They're a bunch of con artists. I hope everything comes to light so that publishers will think twice about working with these guys. Never have I seen such a popular developer fall from grace and show it's true colors this quickly.

[stuntman_mike]

Not talking about it, doesn't mean it's going away Randy. maybe Gearbox should stop taking on 10 year old games and parading them as new.

[Mithan]

Developers should lose lots of money when they release shitty games. If they don't what other incentive will they have to produce good games?

[MasterD919]

He's losing more than just money here...credibility, trust and some fans I imagine are part of this loss as well.

[boldscot]

Yeah but the money is the only one he cares about!

[FarCryLover182]

I can understand him not replying to people that are being rude and mean to him.... but he should tweet at those who are criticizing in a non-hateful way.

[Sandmano]

Thanks for reminding me I have to finish Far Cry 3! :p

[Sarobi]

Have you seen the mass amounts of incredibly stupid tweets people have made to him?.. the guy has seen more death threat tweets than Robert Bowling did during MW3's run.

[MEsoJD]

I asked for an apology for the game and didn't get a reply... Well I have a feeling no apologies will issued which is a real shame. Oh well they already lost me as a customer.

[Heisenburger]

Game over man.... Game over....

(No one used it yet here which really surprised me.)

[TheTwelve]

LOL perfect!!!!

[Sandmano]

Wrote a blog post about it read it!

http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...

[Fairchild Channel F]

Here is something positive I'd like to share with you Randy. I didn't buy your disappointing, unfinished game like I had planned. You know, the one you completely lied about? And by not buying it I saved myself from being duped out of sixty dollars! And that's pretty positive in my book!

Besides losing money you also lost any integrity you had, and no amount of money will buy that back.

[Sandmano]

Well said. Theres no room to fell sorry for him.

[Bathyj]

Same.

Been hyped for this game for years, and I usually ignore reviews mostly and go with my instincts, but this time my instincts were saying, listen to the reviews.

Mostly..

[MassOnesumis]

They could redeem themselves with BL3 but I don't know if they can make it. There isn't another Aliens project to siphon money from.

[worldwidegaming]

I feel sorry for the many fans who purchased that game.
I can imagine that's going to be the standard if games can no longer be rented.

[Xenomorph]

Maybe now they'll commit actual time and effort into a aliens game instead of shitting on my dreams.

[Excalibur]

Best news I've heard all day.

[Rupee]

You guys are all heartless bastards... Ok. You lost 30-40 bucks. Next time be more careful with your money. Gearbox is NOT Randy Pitchford. It is made up of employees who have families and lives. They follow orders. They're not the ones making the decisions. Yeah, someone f***ed up. Yes, there should be consequences. That doesn't mean you need to get your jollies off of them taking a huge financial hit. I expect to get downvoted but I dont care. The Internet is a shitty place...

[Mythicninja]

It truly is unfortunate for the employees, that they have to suffer when the captain at the helm steers the ship directly into the rocky coastline

[EditorAtGNG]

I can sympathize with the rest of the studio and since we don't really know the whole story (there's been a ton of speculation whether Gearbox actually spent most of the time polishing Borderlands 2 instead of working on A:CM) we shouldn't accuse the entire team for the mess. Maybe they were like "hey, weren't we suppose to be working on that Aliens game" and the executives went like "oh don't worry about that, we sent that demo to outsourcing companies so we will be fine. Keep polishing Borderlands 2 guys!" Or maybe, they were like "aw yiss, we don't have to bother working on another title after Borderlands." The result will hurt them no matter what they were doing.

The community does not forget.

[DigitalAnalog]

What a pathetic excuse for a comment. There is a difference between sympathy and white-knighting - you are clearly the latter. Randy is the face of the company, and he deserves every bit of criticism he faces especially after misleading consumers into a false attempt at buying a shady product. The majority of complaints are directed towards him and not the "employees" as so you try to make it seem.

So what if people are happy seeing a company lose money considering they DON'T handle money wisely. It's simple, you provide a shitty product you don't deserve any money put towards you. I don't see why you find this an issue.

[WeskerChildReborned]

Serves them right, knowing the game was shit and still releasing it, seriously, i think Gearbox is one of my least favorite devs right now.

[MadMen]

Will no longer purchase gearbox games.

[vitorizzo]

"I've been stealing from consumers and publishers my whole life"

[Bathyj]

Someone should just make a PSN/XLA game in the vein of Aliens 3 on SNES.

[MrMayhem28]

Damn I really don't know if I want a borderlands 3 after all this fraud Gearbox has been doing

[Plagasx]

Why doesn't he just admit he lied or at the very least say he knows the game is shit? He'll get much more respect doing that.

[Gamerjunki3]

Could anyone inform me as to why it would be Gearbox who would be losing the money, instead of Sega? I thought it was the publisher who took the hit-considering they fund the project.

[Bonerboy]

What is even more pathetic than Randy(douche')Bitchford sulking and hoping for some pity?
......A good majority of the gamers whining and complaining here today will continue to support this twats bank account by purchasing sub par, mediocre games from Gearbox.

Cry for a refund if you like, but in the future, have some god damned conviction and don't give your money to companies like this. Its the only sure fire way to make it clear we cant/wont be scammed. A:CM and WarZ, together at last. Well played Randy.

Yeah, we all feel so very sorry for you, yeah we know its difficult but you'll pull through little buddy, you'll see. Driving home to your mansion in your 'Tuesday car', the Ferrari, maybe a little over the speed limit cause you're upset, maybe order up a cheap call girl, do some blow and then you can kick the crap out of her to relieve some tension, we understand. But look at it this way Randy, at least tomorrow you get to drive your 'Wednesday car', the Porsche, and after that your 'Thursday car' the Lamborghini, and by then you'll probably care a little less that everyone thinks you're an utter twat, because as sure as the sky is blue, your fans always forget getting screwed and will always be back to gladly give you more of their money soon enough.
Not me though, I've thought you and your company have been shit for years and therefore I refuse to give you my money. I'd rather give 50.00 to the town drunk to watch him piss his pants, which IMO is far more entertaining than your lack luster offerings you call 'games'.

[T3MPL3TON]

Waaaaaaa, they are gonna take all of my money that I got for lying to my customers waaaa I don't feel bad for you stop crying like a child on the internet.

[BlaqMagiq24]

All respect lost for this guy. Not even Borderlands' success will keep this guy afloat.

[Godmars290]

Have any sales numbers been reported? Just wondering.

I mean if the guys going to start complaining about losing money it would at least be interesting to find out how its sold.

[Orionsangel]

We want games that give us a positive feeling that developers are making good games. Not releasing games they know are bad.

[WitWolfy]

I love when fans/customers retaliate like this! This isnt the NES era any more when human imperfections are shrugged off!

I say take back games like these and demand a refund or exchange; its your right as a consumer to do so!

[SonyAddict]

This fu××er should be stopped from making any future projects to teach him a lesson in life.

[MooseyXTC]

Rot in your hole, you filthy lying asshole.
Ruining one of the most exciting premises of all time...I hold no sympathy.

[Dfooster]

Putting the twitter comments aside for one minute, if I were CEO of a big company like gearbox there's no way I would let a game be released in that state. They bit off more than they could chew making two borderlands games instead of making just one BL and a f*****g awesome aiens game. Now they are a one product company with a less than desirable reputation, good going Randy.

[Youngski]

I'd like a pair of these new Randy Pitchford glasses that only show positive things. If you look at ACM you see a blank screen instead.

Can understand why he said what he did as it's his personal twitter account. As long as he isn't completely ignoring all negative feedback from other sources it seems reasonable.

Time will tell if he takes the feedback on-board. Presuming he gets a chance to do so of course...

[Nivalis]

they'll probably delay the wiiu version until sega have paid for borderlands 3, lmao

[VTKC]

all this dishonesty business reminds me of another certain company that I already refuse to give any of my money to.

[electricshadow]

This makes me extremely worried for when Brothers in Arms 4 comes out. I'm going to wait 'til there are reviews out for the game before I decide to get it. Don't want to be a victim of the bait and switch Gearbox did with Aliens.