Ben-DutkaAliens: Colonial Marines was a mess. But perhaps most disconcerting of all was the fact that the promotional trailers made it look quite promising.
This happens sometimes, especially when the trailers in question only show CGI or other non-interactive portions of a game. However, we were looking at gameplay in those Colonial Marines videos and after playing the end result, something was obviously amiss.
According to Eurogamer , Sega of Europe has admitted that such trailers were misleading, and they've added disclaimers that say the final game might look different. …"might?" Trust me, does . This came after a Reddit user (subpardave) filed a complaint with the UK's Advertising Standards Agency, saying there were "absurd" differences between actual footage and the supposed in-game footage we saw in those trailers.
Here's part of the ASA's response:
"We contacted Sega Europe to discuss this issue. They explained that their online trailers used demo footage, created using the in-game engine. Sega Europe understood the objections raised about the quality of the game in relation to the trailers, but explained that they weren't aware of these issues when the trailers were produced, in some cases several months before release.
Sega Europe acknowledged your objection that the trailers did not accurately reflect the final content of the game. They agreed to add a disclaimer, both on their website and in all relevant YouTube videos, which explains that the trailers depict footage of the demo versions of the game. The disclaimer will be visible when each online trailer is played."
The ASA says the disclaimer should do the trick, as the trailers now "aren't likely to materially mislead the public." Well, whatever, the whole damn situation is just depressing.
Related Game(s): Aliens: Colonial Marines
Dude, adding a disclaimer doesn't save them from basic false advertising. They knew they had a dud and needed to recoup development costs and so released a bad (possibly unfinished) game with some big visual lies attached to it.
What I find comical about the situation is we haven't come that far from the old days of when you picked a game based on the box art, which was always wildly above and beyond what the game could ever deliver. Still though, we gotta crack down on BS like this in an age when anyone can make a great looking trailer and call that the game in question.
It's like we're regressing, right? I seriously cannot recall the last time a game appeared to be X, but it turned out to be Y. A throwback to the misleading campaigns of 20 years ago, to be sure.
I have always thought that games almost always end up looking nearly the same as the demo for it.
I always laughed when I seen "This is a demo and does not represent the final product." I always thought, yeah right it will be exactly the same.
BUT this is the first time EVER that a demo actually looked better than the final product. Dodgey development.
But what if…What if these demo trailers were used by Gearbox to make Sega assume that its the actual game demo not a fake….
sigh.
said it once, twice, a billion times and ill say it again.
the days of false advertisement being illegal are OVER!
sega are lucky i bought the game from EB so i returned it and got a refund.
otherwise fair trading would be the LEAST of their worries!
i always felt sorry for SEGA, seeing their games always have so much potential but fall short, just assumed it was the fact that there not exactly flushed for cash ATM, used that as a excuse.
well, i know better now, the reason their games fall short is because they clearly dont give a flying f*ck!
sorry sega, but you just lost one very long time fan!
In the end, they're trying to cover their tracks. Let's be honest, they released an unfinished product to cut their losses and misled gamers into buying it, but I heard that wasn't all. Apparently Gearbox used most of Sega's money for Borderlands 2 and turned the majority of Aliens: Colonial Marines over to a different studio to complete.
I could see them creating a demo for Sega showcasing what the game looks like (the demo version) to lead them on.
It s more like they don t want to bother , people who bought it based on those already got ****** .