What is It Worth to Sega to Settle Aliens: Colonial Marines Suit?

[Karloff]

What is It Worth to Sega to Settle Aliens: Colonial Marines Suit?

'It is entirely possible that claiming class members will receive a full refund, making them more than whole,' claims the filing, 'Considering that they will also get to keep the video game.'

Sega must be regretting its involvement in Aliens: Colonial Marines [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/6912-Aliens-Colonial-Marines], given that it could cost the company $1.25 million. That's the amount Sega has offered to settle the class action suit against it which, according to the filing, may leave the claiming class members better off than they were before. They'd get a full refund, and also get to keep the game.

Back in May when news of the class action [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123650-Update-Class-Action-Claims-Colonial-Marines-Falsely-Advertised] hit, Sega said the suit was "without merit and we will defend it vigorously." Four months later, it is now willing to pay out. The Plaintiff John Locke, as class representative, gets $2,500 in addition to any other benefit he might be entitled to under the settlement, $312,500 has been set aside to cover attorney's fees, $200,000 is earmarked for administration costs, and the rest goes to all the other claiming class members, assuming the settlement offer is accepted. If there's any cash left over, it gets donated to the National Consumer Law Center and Consumer's Union.

The settlement does not cover Gearbox [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6832-A-LIE-ns-Colonial-Marines] which, when all this began, described the suit as "beyond meritless." The filing explicitly states that "litigation is expected to continue against Gearbox even if the proposed settlement with Sega is approved." Gearbox has tried to argue that it ought to be dropped from the suit, claiming that it received no profit from the game, but so far that argument doesn't seem to have been accepted.

There were originally two Plaintiffs involved in the case, Locke and Damion Perrine. Perrine subsequently dropped out of the suit, as he had been incarcerated in Pennsylvania [http://www.scribd.com/doc/235545964/A-CM-Damion-Perrine-s-Atty-Documents-Plaintiff-Incarceration]. Perrine remains a class member and will benefit from the settlement, but Locke is now the sole Plaintiff.

Source: Sega Settlement Documentation [http://www.scribd.com/doc/236561682/Proposed-Sega-Settlement-in-Alien-Colonial-Marines-Suit]


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[Redlin5_v1legacy]

"Please, PLEASE! Forget our association with this game!"

Sorry Sega, it's going to haunt you for a long, long time.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I wonder how much that 'vertical slice' E3 segment cost to animate and whether this suit would have ever got off the ground if it hadn't existed in the first place.

The other early trailers were obviously pre-rendered and most of the launch trailers contained real (if edited) gameplay footage, it all seems to hinge on that one segment, with the game being the proverbial Queen coming out of nowhere to ruin everyone's day.

I'd also love to know if it was Sega or Gearbox that made it, since they're both point at each other so hard you'd think they bought Fing-longers.

 

[kajinking]

I wonder how much that 'vertical slice' E3 segment cost to animate and whether this suit would have ever got off the ground if it hadn't existed in the first place.

The other early trailers were obviously pre-rendered and most of the launch trailers contained real (if edited) gameplay footage, it all seems to hinge on that one segment, with the game being the proverbial Queen coming out of nowhere to ruin everyone's day.

I'd also love to know if it was Sega or Gearbox that made it, since they're both point at each other so hard you'd think they bought Fing-longers.

Sadly the fing-longer was never as good as it was intended to be, what the professor saw was merely a "vertical slice" through the what-if machine that made it seem far better than it actually was.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Sadly the fing-longer was never as good as it was intended to be, what the professor saw was merely a "vertical slice" through the what-if machine that made it seem far better than it actually was.

I know that we will never truly know what life would be like had Hubert the great invented the Fing-longer, but we can dream, we can but dream.

 

[Roxas1359]

You know, this feels like SEGA is taking more of the hit for this game than they should be. Yeah, SEGA published it, but they originally were having Gearbox "develop" it. What SEGA got in the end was a terrible mess of a game, and it seems like Gearbox is getting off scott-free for this which is a shame.

As for the game itself, I LPed it without any patches for the PS3 a while ago, and while it was bad it wasn't as bad as people had said when playing single player. When doing Co-Op, that's led to some hilarious bugs already. Such as floating in the air below my friend in the first mission.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I hope they accept the settlement, if all class members get their $60 per game back, and Gearbox, if they are taken to court, do not win their case. Really, Sega's offer should cover everything. Gearbox should only have to pay something if they either could have held the game back to fix the issues (Doubt it. Publishers are all about meeting the release dates when they aren't the ones feeling the pressure of making the game.), or they just didn't care and sent it to other devs so they could work on whatever Borderlands projects they had going on at the time.

If this can all work out in the favor of the people who bought A:CM, perhaps it'll send a message to publishers that we don't like getting lied to. Then again it could bite us in the ass when the publishers just start doing some other marketing mal-practice (like only allowing their puppet journalists to preview to games ("Exclusive Previews only at ign.com!") until release day or possibly after that).

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Anyone else think the lawyers here at just vultures? Yes, Aliens CM was bad. Yes, Gearbox funneled its funding into Borderlands 2. Yes, the demos and trailers were not representational of the final product. Yes, there may be a case to be made in a court.
But what I see is the gamer getting $2,500 out of the deal. And the lawyer getting $300,000! Somehow that doesn't sit well with me. I know lawyers get paid too much, but seriously! He's getting 100 times what his client is getting.
Everyone involved in this case must feel like an absolute moron.

 

[Alexander Kirby]

Yes, we were all lied too, but what I'm more worried about is that we live in a world where someone can be refunded 40x the value of a product they were dissatisfied with.

Maybe next time my coffee isn't as delicious as they make it look on the posters I can sue and get a $100 refund, and get to keep the coffee.

 

[BeerTent]

Yes, we were all lied too, but what I'm more worried about is that we live in a world where someone can be refunded 40x the value of a product they were dissatisfied with.

Maybe next time my coffee isn't as delicious as they make it look on the posters I can sue and get a $100 refund, and get to keep the coffee.

Where the hell do you see anyone getting refunded 40 times the value of the product? Bro, you read?

It aint the fact that people are dissatisfied with it, it's the fact we were lied to. That's what this suit is all about. If you were lied to about a product, bout bought it anyway, after paying $60 on it... Wouldn't you try to at least return it?

Well, you can't. Because it's in the EULA for that product. Litigation is your only option.

 

[Maze1125]

I love how people are acting like a lawsuit isn't work for the plaintiffs.
"Here's your $60 you're legal entitled to. We don't care that you had to put in 100s of hours of work to get it (where you could have been earning other money) and that you put in that work not just for yourself but also for other in the same position as you, purely because the defendants refused to admit fault, you're still not getting a penny more!"
That's exactly how things should work in a fair world...

 

[aivalera]

They ain't compensated enough for that piece of shit. Some steam users have to stare at it in their library, and that's punishment enough. Its worse than having Bad Rats on your account.

SEGA is left holding the bag twice, its sad. Once for dev costs, now for this pay out. Not counting the license that must cost them a pretty penny to use the aliens franchise. Just another nail in the coffin of the company. After ROME II, I ain't gonna trust them ever again. Two turds in a year? Thats worse than Paradox and Kalypso combined.

Spoiler: Oh yeah, and this is whats happening to SEGA's bank account right now.

I just wanted an excuse to use these on the Escapist, and I got one! Woo!

...I saw your GIFs and now I want to find a place to use them as well

Oh, and Sega honestly had it coming just for saying the suit was "without merit". Of course, by that reason Gearbox deserves worse by saying it was "beyond meritless."

 

[Kenjitsuka]

"'It is entirely possible that claiming class members will receive a full refund, making them more than whole,' claims the filing, 'Considering that they will also get to keep the video game.'"

I can see how you started with that quote, cause it's probably the funiest thing I'll read all week!
If someone takes a dump on your carpet and says "You came out ahead, cause you get to keep it for free" that's basically exactly the same quote.

 

[Alexander Kirby]

Where the hell do you see anyone getting refunded 40 times the value of the product? Bro, you read?

It aint the fact that people are dissatisfied with it, it's the fact we were lied to. That's what this suit is all about. If you were lied to about a product, bout bought it anyway, after paying $60 on it... Wouldn't you try to at least return it?

Well, you can't. Because it's in the EULA for that product. Litigation is your only option.

"The Plaintiff John Locke, as class representative, gets $2,500 in addition to any other benefit he might be entitled to under the settlement"

2,500 / 60 = 41.7 - I could say "Bro, you maths?" here but comments like that are unnecessary. I'm not trying to get into a heated argument about this of all things, I'm still on your side, just less strongly.

To say we were lied to is stretching it a bit though. The now oh so famous demonstration they showed us represented only the best parts of the product and what the creators envisioned it to look like when it was done. This is common practice; the Watchdogs demonstration is a recent controversial example, but even well recieved games embellish certain aspects in their trailers and the like, look at the E3 demonstration of the Last of Us, it was clearly a pre scripted vertical slice, but the difference is the game was good so people's expectations were met.

They don't just do this in game either. I have a friend in the business of professionally photographing food, and when you see an advertisement for food, be it in a magazine or on TV the meal is in reality stone cold and painted with actual varnish. They use steam generators, water spritzers as well as colour grading and photoshop to make it look delicious, but what you're seeing is inedible. When you buy food the picture on the front shows it under professional lighting and garnished with various ingredient that don't actually come with it. It always looks worse once you've got it home, but we're used to being lied to.

Yes, what they did with Colonial Marines was inexcusable, but I honestly think the hate has got out of hand. It's one of many examples of how internet communities can blow things completely out of proportion. I agree that people deserve compensation, but didn't Steam already offer full refunds? And I imagine a few of the small retail stores may well have too. Someone just made $2500 out of this, not to mention all of the lawyers making a quick buck despite never being a victim of this. I call this too far personally.

 

[90sgamer]

SEGA deserves worse for its role in the deceptive marketing of this game. The purpose of the law suit is not only to make Plaintiff and Claimants "whole," but also to punish the defendant for its conduct. Keep in mind that fraud is also a criminal offense; it's pretty serious business. Therefore, any settlement should include punitive damages, attorney's fees, and court costs, or no deal. SEGA would get raked over the coals if this went to trial.

 

[Ishigami]

Oh I thought they didn?t go thru with that?. Okay please don?t settle for this shit! You got a good case please keep going!

 

[SweetShark]

"Please, PLEASE! Forget our association with this game!"

Sorry Sega, it's going to haunt you for a long, long time.

I didn't played the game myself, but I think this is the best part of the game. I know this look silly, but they act like that cause they are blind of something.
Of course maybe I am wrong, but even Angry Joe said it was the most enjoyable part of the game.

 

[SweetShark]

Anyway,I just wanted to say is.........don't you dare do something similar in the future.
Even sh*ttier games show how their game look like in reality.

Btw, why this didn't happened with Watch Dogs of Ubisoft? It is exactly the same case.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

"'It is entirely possible that claiming class members will receive a full refund, making them more than whole,' claims the filing, 'Considering that they will also get to keep the video game.'"

I can see how you started with that quote, cause it's probably the funiest thing I'll read all week!
If someone takes a dump on your carpet and says "You came out ahead, cause you get to keep it for free" that's basically exactly the same quote.

Damn, beat me to it. I was thinking the exact same thing when I read that. When your game is a buggy mess of code, "getting to keep the game" isn't exactly a bonus. That's why this class action suit exists in the first place.