Rumour: Gearbox Wasn't Aliens: Colonial Marines' Lead Developer

According to comments made up by an ex-Gearbox employee, the majority of Aliens: Colonial Marines was not built by the Borderlands developer. In fact, the game – which has been paraded around by gaffer Randy Pitchford and crew in the build up to release – was actually the product of TimeGate Studios, the developer behind the decent downloadable first-person shooter Section 8: Prejudice.

"Hate to say it, but I wouldn't get your hopes up too high for Colonial Marines," a former developer wrote in a forum post dug up by Superannuation. "I used to work at Gearbox, and the development of that game has been a total train wreck going on, what, six years now?

"Gearbox isn't even making the game, except for the multiplayer. Primary development was outsourced to TimeGate Studios, which has a less than stellar past."

The comments seem to trace back to one of the founders of Armature Studios, the team responsible for bringing the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection to PlayStation Vita. The Texas-based start-up was formed by Mark Pacini, Todd Keller, and Jack Mathews, though it's not clear which of the trio the post belongs to.

Last year, Randy Pitchford claimed that 80 per cent of the game's development was being handled in-house at Gearbox, which contradicts the above comment. However, publisher SEGA has refused to set the record straight, leading us to believe that there may be some truth to the statement.

Irrespective of who worked on the game, it's clear that things didn't go according to plan. The title currently commands a rating of 50 on Metacritic, and we wouldn’t be surprised if that number slipped lower over the coming days.