Gearbox President: "I Have Always Profited From Criticism"

[wolfyrik]

I agree with most of what you say but I still have some sympathy for Gearbox. In 2008 they had announced that they were developing Aliens: CM, then later that year they announced they were developing that horror story of a development cycle Duke Nukem, Borderlands was still in development, and then they had a ton of layoffs making them one of the smallest AAA developers still in business with 3 AAA titles in their lap at one time. Remember that they are a developer so they have contracts stipulating when a game should come out, how much the game should make, and other criteria that are given by the publisher in order to get paid fully. If they didn't do what they did about Aliens then they would probably owe Sega a LOT of money and most likely would go under as a company. I don't condone them lying but I find it hard to hate them for it when considering all this.

I can accept all that.

What is not acceptable is the obvious deception, and I'll go further than "not condoning". This damages the reputation of the entire industry.

They should have been honest that this was beyond their means to fix and Sega needs to man up and stop trying to do this on the cheap, trying to get a skeleton crew developer to make/fix three games at once, including borderlands 2 back to back after Borderlands 1. There is also talk of a Duke Nukem sequel or remake being made at the same time?!?

It's their fault for signing contract stipulations beyond what they could manage, their loyal trusting customers should not be exploited unfairly to cover up for their terrible business decisions.

I mean I don't get them, why did they take Duke Nukem Forever? It obviously wasn't out of any sort of loyalty to that classic gamestyle, they blatantly cashed that in for Halo style gameplay with 2 weapon limit and regenerating health, it pissed off everyone! Aliens: CM wasn't true to the aliens franchise as it is supposedly "of canon" game that completely contradicts the movies such as LV426 not being nuked from orbit, Sulaco remaining in orbit, ---- surviving and being on LV426.

A corporate entity will never be honest about its problems. Shareholders and stakeholders would crucify a CEO if he/she started talking down its own product. The Ethics of business at the end of the day is to make as much money as possible and if you screw customers over to do that... well shareholders don't give a damn, and shareholders come first no matter what CEO you are.

Not saying what they did isn't wrong, and it won't bite them in the ass regarding brand loyalty in the future but the industry doesn't seem to be able to see beyond the end of year figures anymore.

Also, spoilers mate... You named the character who survived, edit it out of your post. I was going to rent the game this weekend for that sole reason.

It wouldn't have helped, the game displays Michael Biehn in the opening credits, which are captioned over the animation in gloriously large font. Pre-release I thought it might be Hudson, then I started the game.

 

[Excelsior789]

No...no Randy would never say that.... O.O Randy...you're breaking my heart! You're going down a path I can't follow!

Please, isn't there enough shit involved in this discussion? Don't go quoting episode 3 now. Nobody needs that on top of this disappointment of a game.

 

[G3]

One thing that just keeps popping up is their HUGE TELEVISION AD CAMPAIGN. It is everywhere. Someone is spending megabucks trying to make this sound like the best thing since the original Halo.

Jim Sterling, can you address that? Is it possible for a publisher to overwhelm crap quality with over-the-top advertising?

I'd love to read that article, or see that vid.

Thanks.