Gearbox and Sega both reconfirm sci-fi-inspired shooter is still in development; handheld edition confirmed as well.

Source: Gamespot

'Aliens: Colonial Marines' has been a 'most wanted' title for gamers all over the world, ever since it was announced by Sega in 2006. We've been drip-fed a couple of screen shots, but nothing significant. Then - following the February announcement of Aliens vs. Predator and the apparent indefinite suspension of Obsidian Entertainment's Aliens RPG project, doubts have surrounded Aliens: Colonial Marines. The game was being developed by Gearbox Software, the Texan studio behind this year's highly anticipated postapocalyptic action role-playing game, Borderlands. For the past several months, though, both developer and publisher have been mum on the status of the project, based on James Cameron's classic, 1986 film.


"Hey Sarge, ya get eye cancer smokin' those."

Last week, gaming fans of the 1986 film Aliens got some welcome news when Gearbox Software confirmed it is still developing Aliens: Colonial Marines. The game, which has been back-burnered so the Texas developer can focus on its original October release Borderlands, had been rumored to be canceled following the surprise announcement of Aliens vs. Predator.

Another game that was rumored to be canceled was the unnamed Aliens role-playing game being developed by Obsidian Entertainment. Though the independent shop, formed in 2003 by former Fallout 2 developer Black Isle Studios, remained officially mum on the matter, GameSpot learned that work on the title had been indefinitely suspended in February. Though the game's forums remained active on the Obsidian site, subsequent reports from former staffers said the game had been canceled outright.

This afternoon, Obsidian made it official with a brief post from an administrator on the Aliens RPG forums. "Rumors have circled around a bit regarding the fate of the Aliens role playing game that Obsidian and Sega had been working on," read the post. "Unfortunately, it is true that we are no longer working on the game, and we wanted to finally announce that officially to everyone who has been following its development." The Aliens RPG forums will continue to operate another week before being dismantled entirely.

After weeks of promising that information would be forthcoming, Sega was quick to confirm the project's demise. "At this point, Sega has no plans to move forward with the Aliens RPG," a rep told GameSpot. "The Aliens franchise offers us so much content to choose from that we feel it important to take a step back and carefully consider the type of game we want to release. We plan to continue working with the Aliens franchise and ask fans to be patient and stay tuned for more information about what Sega has coming out for the Aliens series of games, starting with the upcoming Alien vs. Predator game."

Sega will still publish Obsidian's Bourne Identity-like espionage RPG Alpha Protocol, due out this fall on the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. The Irvine, California-based shop is also hard at work on Fallout: New Vegas, which will be published by Bethesda Softworks next year.


"Insert 'Game Over' joke here."

Here's the E3 09 Teaser for the upcoming AVP game.



MEANWHILE - there's also the highly anticipated 'Interstellar Marines' -


"You sure this is the right BDSM club?"

Another Marine-style shooter. This does look very good though - despite being another title that's been in development hell, for what feels like a century. Apart from the terrible voice-over, what I love about this trailer is the fact that the bulk of it is in first person POV.