GAMESREVIEWS
VIDEOS
COMMUNITY
Rising (10+)Notable (20+)Popular (30+)Promoted (Front Paged!)
People you followTaggedGeneral - Opinion/EditorialCommunity ReviewsOff-topicCommunity PodcastersBloggers Wanted ResponseLetters to Dtoids EditorsGet InvolvedGeneral BadassnessJoin a Live Stream EventListen to CommunitoidJoin a Playdate EventCompete in a ContestRandy Pitchford doesn't like being called a liar
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford raised his head above cover today, making a few indirect Tweets regarding the controversial Aliens: Colonial Marines launch. While he didn't provide an explanation or an apology, he did make it clear that he doesn't consider himself a liar. "I've always profited from criticism and, thankfully, I have never been in short supply," he said. "However, insult or threaten me and I want nothing to do with you. Expect block/ban/whatever I can do." One person replied to Pitchford's pleas by telling him nobody likes a liar. The man who oversaw Colonial Marines fired back with a denial, and an assertion of his noble ambitions. "No one likes to be called a liar, especially if their intent was pure and they always spoke the truth when they spoke it," he claimed. Sympathetic stuff, if one is indeed inclined toward feeling sympathy for the face of a company very much under harsh scrutiny. Whether or not you believe the rumors of Gearbox's duplicity and shoddy work ethic, the fact remains that Pitchford has a lot of explaining to do when he can finally muster the soul to speak more directly. He doesn't consider himself a liar, but the basic evidence on display leaves room for few alternative interpretations. I feel lied to. I spoke to Pitchford about Aliens: Colonial Marines, and he talked to me about the game's "next generation lighting" and other awesome features. He promised things I never saw, he showed a room full of writers things that would never make it to the final product. At this stage, and after days of silence, it doesn't matter if Pitchford believed the words coming out of his mouth when he spoke them. That won't stop those of us he said them to feeling grossly misled. Personally, I feel embarrassed by the interview I conducted with him. One feels like a chump when they, in their enthusiasm for a game, publishes an optimistic interview with a guy whose words turn out to be little more than ash in the wind. Thanks to this interview, and indeed the entire Colonial Marines debacle, I've gone off the idea of previews entirely. I'm sticking to reviews, so I can have real code and be sure it's not some chicanery. To use an already overused Aliens quote -- it's the only way to be sure. The road to Hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions. Pitchford could have started Colonial Marines with a pure ambition in mind, or he could have been scamming from the start. Either way, the sad and sorry result is the same. Either way, nobody from Gearbox came clean about the changes between the promised Aliens and the final version. Either way, Gearbox allowed customers to keep on thinking they'd bought something totally different from what they got. And the people accusing Randy of lying to them certainly aren't to blame for that. Did you know? You can now get daily or weekly email notifications when humans reply to your comments.
8:00 AM on 05.03.2013 Aliens: Gearbox defends its right to mislead customersBoth Gearbox and SEGA have responded to a class action suit that alleges customers were lied to during the development of Aliens: Colonial Marines. Both companies are happy to defend themselves and seem unswayed by the threat...
8:00 AM on 05.01.2013 Aliens: Colonial Marines gets class action suit for liesSEGA and Gearbox have been slapped with a class action suit for Aliens: Colonial Marines, accused of lying about the game to get it sold. It was only a matter of time. Edelson LLC has taken the case, which alleges that ...
10:00 AM on 04.23.2013 SimCity, Colonial Marines, and The SilenceRecently, John Walker at Rock, Paper, Shotgun wrote a compelling article on SimCity, and how Electronic Arts' maintenance of radio silence has demonstrated total effectiveness in getting everybody to shut up. The basic argume...
12:45 PM on 04.05.2013 Aliens: Colonial Marines Wii U canceledThose of you left caring may have noticed Aliens: Colonial Marines missed its Wii U release launch window. There's a very good reason for that -- SEGA finally decided to shoot the lame dog in the head, and has quietly cancele...
8:00 AM on 04.03.2013 SEGA admits Colonial Marines trailers are unreflectiveFollowing an upheld complaint with the UK's Advertising Standards Authority, SEGA Europe has admitted that trailers for Aliens: Colonial Marines do not reflect the game's final (shoddy) content. The complaint was upheld...
8:30 PM on 03.22.2013 Aliens vs. Predator Evolution gameplay demonstratedAliens vs. Predator: Evolution has been out on Android and iOS devices for a little while now, but a new dev diary video going over gameplay mechanics and the abilities of the Xenomorph and Predator characters has arriv...
10:15 AM on 03.21.2013 Aliens: Colonial Marines 360/PS3 update releasedI'm sorry, dear readers. I've still not "gotten over" Aliens: Colonial Marines. After a set period of time, gamers tend to get aggressively apathetic over certain situations, and seem to grow angry if someone else isn't as re...
8:30 AM on 03.20.2013 Aliens: Colonial Marines 'Bug Hunt' DLC out nowAliens: Colonial Marines' long-awaited (haha) "Bug Hunt" downloadable content is now available on Steam, Xbox Live, and PlayStation Network. It's a wave-based survival mode that, given the general brevity of the game's hyped ...
6:00 PM on 03.19.2013 4GB Aliens: Colonial Marines patch available for PCGearbox continues to demonstrate that, contrary to popular idioms, you can actually polish a turd. Aliens: Colonial Marines is being made shinier -- but no less stinkier -- in a 4GB PC patch that improves textures, A.I. behav...
2:00 PM on 03.04.2013 Review: Alien vs. Predator: EvolutionWhen the makers of Alien vs. Predator: Evolution saw the negative press and subsequent fallout regarding Aliens: Colonial Marines, they must have laughed. I imagine them bellowing obnoxiously, roaring their gleeful approval t...
| timeline following: |
surf dtoid with 
follow
