Does Gearbox Deserve A Second Chance?

[Toxic34]

This post is very straightforward. Gearbox Software is now considered among the absolute worst offenders in the gaming industry today, next to Bethesda. The goodwill bestowed for the success of Brothers In Arms and Borderlands counted for nothing in the releases of Duke Nukem Forever and Aliens: Colonial Marines. Randy Pitchford's desperate attempt to defend both only made him and his company all the more hated.

So the question is this: does Gearbox deserve a second chance? Will people flock to the new Borderlands game, whenever it comes out? Gearbox also plans to resurrect Duke for the long haul. Can they do it? And if they can, should they?

 

[Carlos]

Duke Nukem Forever wasn't entirely Gearbox's fault. As a matter of fact, they only bought the assets, and tried to salvage what has been developed thus far in the 10 years it's been in development. It has been through numerous developers before Gearbox, so it's not really their fault the game was released in the shape it was in. It at least kept the humor that Duke was known for - and it even kept the crude material intact. Peeing in the bathroom? I mean, what the fuck!? Which company does that? Nobody. They had the balls to do that.

I feel that with Aliens Colonial Marines, Gearbox was definitely out of their depth. And I don't blame them. The problem is that, it has been about 10-20 years since Aliens was introduced. We don't really know the story of the series. After Aliens 3, the series went into a different direction with the release of Aliens vs Predator - The only thing remotely tried to stay in the Aliens lore was Prometheus, which is both a prequel, and a spin-off. I didn't care to watch Prometheus, and likewise I really didn't give a fuck where Aliens came from, I mean, yeah... I do, but from a sub-human species? A mutant of sorts? It's like they're trying to make things up as the series goes along.

Also, many times stories do not translate into a game, and I think that's what happened with Colonial Marines. Forget the fact that the game was marketed as a "awesome looking game." And turned out to be false advertising in itself, the game just didn't have that Gearbox Seal of Quality stamped on it. It was more like "Okay, make it gold." for the sake of meeting deadlines. Delay the fucking game if it's not perfect!

Companies these days don't understand that in this industry; trust, and reputation is all and important. You fail at one game, you can kiss your future projects goodbye. Borderlands was successful because it was feeding a market that just wasn't there yet. Many FPS'es were just copycats of Call of Duty. Sorry, but true. Borderlands broke the pattern and brought RPG gameplay to the mainstream.

Now, does Gearbox deserve another chance? Yes. Much of the fanbase are usually casuals. So, yeah.

If Gearbox learned from the mistakes of Duke Nukem Forever, and learn what made Duke Nukem so popular in the first place, then it could be a successful franchise for Gearbox. But they have to carefully execute this. It is hard these days to bring a legendary franchise from the dead and into the present, like the Doom reboot did... It is hard.

 

[Toxic34]

Indeed. Many have stated they will never buy a Gearbox game again because of the quality of Colonial Marines and Randy Pitchford's post-release statements, especially about the lawsuit filed against them for false advertising.

CM actually has a very troubled history. It turns out that Gearbox essentially slacked off, diverting people from the game to work instead on Borderlands and finishing Duke, making no progress, but collecting milestone checks from Sega and 20th Century Fox as if things were on schedule. This is why Sega cancelled back in 2008, only to reverse course. By several accounts, no real work began until 2011 or so, when the dummied-up E3 video was made. Gearbox then farmed out the real work to TimeGate and Nerve, while they got the money and credit and kept working on future Borderlands titles. Sega gave an ultimatum: either have the game shipped for release in February 2013, or the project would be completely cancelled, and would never even be resurrected by another studio, and all the money Gearbox had been given (and they'd already spent) would have to be repaid. With that, the game was rushed to gold, with nonexistent QA and no beta testing.

Pitchford, of course, made ridiculous and lame excuses, first faulting Sega, then claiming that the game had been of higher quality graphics earlier and something must have been done to tamper with the product, then calling the plaintiffs in the lawsuit as practicing "Mafia tactics", and so on. Even now, he shows no sign of repentance and refuses to accept responsibility for the title.

Which is why I look forward to the release of Neill Blomkamp's Alien film. It will not only restore order into a franchise that went completely off the rails, but provide an opportunity for an FPS Alien game that many have clamored hungrily for.

 

[Toxic34]

I hope that Gearbox does something good for Duke Nukem. I think they dropped the ball with 20th Anniversary World Tour, but I want them to fix it. I also want some kind of new title for Duke, something that the fans deserve. Also, I want Borderlands 3 to really impress.