Aliens: Colonial Marines Developer Goes Under

[The Wooster]

Aliens: Colonial Marines Developer Goes Under

No, not Gearbox. The other one.

According to a report from Kotaku, TimeGate has finally succumbed to its chronic money problems and has laid off its entire staff. Until recently, the studio was known mostly for its award-winning Kohan RTS series and its unremarkable F.E.A.R expansions. Now, you'll likely recognize it as the outfit largely responsible for the study in disappointment that was Aliens: Colonial Marines, which didn't do the studio any favors.

The company filed for bankruptcy last week, but publisher, SouthPeak, which holds a $10 million fraud judgement against the developer, claimed the filing was a "ruse" designed to let company insiders dodge the fraud findings. The "insiders," in this case, being Alan B. Chavelah and Morteza Baharloo, who own approximately 70% of the company. They also own 80% of a health-care company named Healix.Inc, which could have been affected by the fraud judgement. SouthPeak took the issue to court and was looking to convert the Chapter 11 bankruptcy into a Chapter 7 liquidation. According to one of Kotaku's sources, SouthPeak won that case, essentially giving it dibs on TimeGate's stuff.

The Escapist wishes the best of luck to those laid off.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/the-studio-behind-aliens-colonial-marines-just-laid-of-498772251]



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[Sigmund Av Volsung]

How...

*puts on shades*

Untimely

Otherwise, I am bit sad, Section 8 was quite good.

 

[BrotherRool]

I kind of feel that Gearbox were more responsible for the disappointment of ACM than these guys. Time Gate only worked on the game for one year and Gearbox worked on it for five years

Unless you mean largely responsible as in 'made most of' which seems to be true, which is pathetic given they only worked on it for a 1/5th as long.

But then it sounds like Time Gate weren't paragons of virtue either with the fraud judgement. Messy business all round

 

[Buccura]

Well someone is going to say it so it may as well be me, ahem.

"Game over man!"

But in all seriousness, given how much of a let down CM was I don't exactly have much sympathy for the devs.

 

[bunji]

Wasnt Gearbox really more responsible for the mess than anyone else? Thought they were the ones with the license and who were dicking around with the game, dropping it on random studios because they just wanted to milk borderlands instead.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Wasnt Gearbox really more responsible for the mess than anyone else?

No no this isn't about ACM or Gearbox, this is all about Section 8.
That was the IP SouthPeak was financing TimeGate for, and when SouthPeak wasn't paying royalties TimeGate took them to court which was immediately countered by a lawsuit by SouthPeak claiming TimeGate didn't invest enough of their own funds into the games and that is why the games were not making the big bucks.
SouthPeak also demanded $7 mil and the claim on TimeGate's only IP which was oddly granted by the court right away, and now that TimeGate has gone bust SouthPeak are again instantly granted a claim on the entire bloody company...

Now either TimeGate really has been racking up one hella debt on the publishers shoulders or SouthPeak got some nasty ties with the judges.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I think this pic expresses my feelings on the matter. Very much.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

its unremarkable F.E.A.R expansions.

I'm guessing those were the good ones (Extraction Point / Perseus Mandate) and not the horrid sequels (F.E.A.R. 2/F.E.A.R. 3)?

 

[Ragsnstitches]

The facebook comments have already lowered the bar quite drastically for this topic:

Hopefully every single person that worked on the game and its marketing will end up unemployed and homeless.

Classy, cause we all know these people were just out to get gamers and fans of the alien franchise. That's far easier to believe then the notion that they are just honest people in a shitty situation being horribly mismanaged on the part of Sega and Co... not to mention Gearbox also has it's reputation dirtied by all of this.

But no, let's all hope that they have their lives destroyed by this.

If you are reading this Eric, I hope you get a small taste of what it is you are wishing on these folks, just so you see how cruel and ignorant you are being.

OT: Can't say I'm surprised. I feel gearbox is feeling it too, but they have a solid foundation to fall back on. All I can truly see from all this is that Sega is really screwing up all over the shop when it comes to handling their properties. They have fallen so far since the Dreamcast.

 

[Strazdas]

its unremarkable F.E.A.R expansions.

I'm guessing those were the good ones (Extraction Point / Perseus Mandate) and not the horrid sequels (F.E.A.R. 2/F.E.A.R. 3)?

yes, they were those. They made perseus mandate, extractino point and Files (havent palyed files, wtf is that).

Frankly, those expansions were the ONLY thing i have played that they made to begin with. Sure they were fun stuff, but that was 2007. How did they expect t keep afload without making anything good for 5 years?
Hopefully gearbox falls over too, god knows they deserve a good slap in the face.

 

[AldUK]

I played Kohan: Ahriman's Gift competitively online for several years and to this day it remains my all-time favourite RTS. It blows Starcraft out of the water. I also met some really great guys playing it, some of which I am still in contact with today, the game was never really a huge success so the online crowd was small. We didn't care though, because this was pre-WoW where it wasn't customary to be an asshole to everyone you see on the internet. We all knew each other, we all got on well together and I have awesome memories of them and the game we loved.

I for one, will miss you Timegate. Thanks for the memories.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

I actually liked TimeGate, Section 8 was great. I can't help but feel that the Aliens failure all comes down to Gearbox's horrific management of resources, and not TimeGate's lack of talent. Same with Digital Extremes and their recent Star Trek game - they're a great studio. Whatever circumstances they were under making the game are to blame, not them directly.

Though certainly more transparency as to what those circumstances were would certainly make them look less horrible for putting their studio's name on it.

 

[GoaThief]

Ultimately I believe Gearbox are more responsible than anyone when it comes to the Aliens CM mess. They worked the longest and reportedly dismantled TimeGate's prior work, the latter seem to be being made the convenient scapegoat.

 

[Gylukios]

A shame, Section 8 and its sequel still rank as some of my favorite game play ever. All the stuff in that game, and even more in its cheaper sequel, and still nobody bought it. I hate it when a developer makes a good game that sells poorly because it's name wasn't big enough or it couldn't find an audience. I hope something gets done with Section 8, but if not I'll live on to shove its name in somebody's face when they next complain about "stale" first person shooters.

So long, Timegate. Thanks for all the jetpacks.

 

[itsthesheppy]

I feel really bad for those folks that got laid off. I'm in the same position in a different industry, and it sucks.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

its unremarkable F.E.A.R expansions.

I'm guessing those were the good ones (Extraction Point / Perseus Mandate) and not the horrid sequels (F.E.A.R. 2/F.E.A.R. 3)?

yes, they were those. They made perseus mandate, extractino point and Files (havent palyed files, wtf is that).

Frankly, those expansions were the ONLY thing i have played that they made to begin with. Sure they were fun stuff, but that was 2007. How did they expect t keep afload without making anything good for 5 years?
Hopefully gearbox falls over too, god knows they deserve a good slap in the face.

Files, if I remember correctly, was just Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate bundled together for consoles. As for Gearbox, I don't get the hate. The whole ACM seemed like the only mess up. With Duke Nukem Forever, most people were hating it just to hate it when most had never played it, or they were ignorantly assuming it was supposed to be the "greatest game ever" because it started production 14 years ago. For what it was, it was a pretty fun game. The Borderlands games are also really good.

 

[Strazdas]

its unremarkable F.E.A.R expansions.

I'm guessing those were the good ones (Extraction Point / Perseus Mandate) and not the horrid sequels (F.E.A.R. 2/F.E.A.R. 3)?

yes, they were those. They made perseus mandate, extractino point and Files (havent palyed files, wtf is that).

Frankly, those expansions were the ONLY thing i have played that they made to begin with. Sure they were fun stuff, but that was 2007. How did they expect t keep afload without making anything good for 5 years?
Hopefully gearbox falls over too, god knows they deserve a good slap in the face.

Files, if I remember correctly, was just Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate bundled together for consoles. As for Gearbox, I don't get the hate. The whole ACM seemed like the only mess up. With Duke Nukem Forever, most people were hating it just to hate it when most had never played it, or they were ignorantly assuming it was supposed to be the "greatest game ever" because it started production 14 years ago. For what it was, it was a pretty fun game. The Borderlands games are also really good.

Ah, explains why i never played Files then, heh. Thing is, Duke was truly a bad game, thinking its still the 80s and acting like it, dead seriuos. It probably is the fault of long and multi-developer developement cycle. Still it was a utter failure, i didnt think its going to be some kind of awesome thing or anything but i didnt expect it to be THAT bad.
Borderlands could be fun, except i dont play coop.