Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford invested $10 million of his own money into Aliens: Colonial Marines and lost it all. Pitchford revealed the figure today as part of a heated Twitter debate. He defended Colonial Marines and said the claims made in the game’s high-profile lawsuit were “hurtful and unhelpful.”
First, some background.
Following the release of Colonial Marines in February 2013, sources told GameSpot that publisher Sega was concerned that Gearbox was not investing enough effort into the game. Later, complaints were filed that claimed trailers for the game published pre-launch were misrepresentative of the final game.
Sega later admitted that the videos could have been misleading, and the matter went to court.
In May 2015, the next chapter of the case unfolded when Gearbox was dropped from the lawsuit, something it had been trying to achieve for a year. The case against Gearbox was dismissed with prejudice under the condition that Gearbox wouldn’t seek legal fees. The case could still proceed in court, however, but not as a class-action lawsuit, a judge ruled at the time.
Now, Pitchford has shed new light on the development of Colonial Marines and the nature of Gearbox’s relationship with Sega. Among other things, he says the game needed to sell 3 million copies to break even, but it ended up only shipping 1.3 million, meaning it was a “commercial failure.”
Check out more of Pitchford’s thoughts on Colonial Marines through the tweets below. You can also visit his Twitter page to see everything he had to say–and there is lots.
@ngrey651 I invested over $10m on top of Sega’s investment. Lost it all.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) July 14, 2015
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