Gearbox responds to Aliens: Colonial Marines lawsuit
"Gearbox supplemented Sega's development budget with its own money"
Gearbox has mounted its defense in the ongoing class-action lawsuit that alleges it and Sega are guilty of misleading the public with their advertising and demos of Aliens: Colonial Marines. It also reveals details of the company's financial dealings with Sega, claiming it paid substantial sums to see the game finished.
"Gearbox never belonged in this lawsuit," attorneys for the developer stated in a court filing reported by Polygon.
"Gearbox is a video game software developer. It was neither the publisher nor seller of the video game at issue. For more than a year, Gearbox has quietly abided the plaintiffs' claims so that Sega, the game's publisher and the party responsible for the game's marketing and sale, could assume the defense of this lawsuit. Gearbox has honored its publisher's request in spite of plaintiffs' highly-publicized-and highly-misplaced-claims against Gearbox. At this point, however, Gearbox is obligated to pursue its rightful departure from this case."
"Gearbox supplemented Sega's development budget with its own money to help Sega finish its game"
Steve Gibson, Gearbox
The filings were made on Wednesday to the Northern District of California and asked that four of the claims were dropped and that whole suit lose class-action status.
"During the development process, Gearbox supplemented Sega's development budget with its own money to help Sega finish its game; Gearbox's contributions to A:CM totaled millions, none of which was ever repaid," Gearbox's Steve Gibson stated in a deposition as part of the filing.
"The game's sales were insufficient to trigger any sales-based payments to Gearbox and, as a result, Gearbox has not received any additional monies from Sega for the sale of the game. Gearbox only received the milestone payments made by Sega during the game's development."
The class action lawsuit against Sega and Gearbox began in May 2013 and was brought by law firm Edelson LLC on behalf of Damion Perrine, who is currently in jail awaiting trial on assault charges.