Gearbox has responded to the class-action lawsuit that alleges both it and Sega mislead consumers with the advertising and demos for Aliens: Colonial Marines.
“Gearbox never belonged in this lawsuit,” Gearbox attorneys stated in a court filing. “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.”
The filings, which were made on wednesday, asked that four of the claims be dropped and the lawsuit lost its 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 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.”
(via GI International)