Gearbox, Sega sued over alleged Aliens discrepancies

A lawsuit filed this week in the Northern District of California court claims that Sega and Gearbox Software knowingly lied to consumers by releasing trade show demos for space shooter Aliens: Colonial Marines that were unrepresentative of the final product. Colonial Marines was released in February to negative reviews, with both players and the media noting that the game bore little resemblance to the demos that had been shown previously. Now law firm Edelson has filed a suit against the game's publisher and developer on behalf of an individual called Damion Perrine, who alleges that the "actual gameplay" demos provided were not accurate representations of the final product, thus tricking consumers into preordering for an experience which they were not provided with. Additionally, Perrine notes that review code was sent out to review outlets with an embargo that lifted on the game's day of release, meaning that those people who preordered the game were not made aware of discrepancies between the demos and the final game until they'd already paid for it. "Each of the 'actual gameplay' demonstrations purported to show consumers exactly what they would be buying: a cutting edge video game with very specific features and qualities," reads the claim, as obtained by Polygon. "Unfortunately for their fans, Defendants never told anyone - consumers, industry critics, reviewers, or reporters - that their 'actual gameplay' demonstration advertising campaign bore little resemblance to the retail product that would eventually be sold to a large community of unwitting purchasers." Sega told Gamasutra that it is currently looking into the lawsuit at the moment.