Anonymous Sega Exec Says Gearbox Embezzled A:CM Funds

An unnamed Sega executive has supposedly taken to Blogger to separate the fact from fiction regarding lies surrounding his employer. The latest entry centers around the recent FPS bomb called Aliens: Colonial Marines and all the controversy surrounding the Sonic publisher and associated developers.

Last time we tuned in to this channel, no one was really sure who developed the game, only that Gearbox was in charge. Even more, there were accusations of false advertisement, as both Sega and Gearbox promoted a product that gamers never really received. The anonymous Sega employee adds his own opinion to the data, pointing fingers at TimeGate and Sega, and accusing Gearbox of embezzlement.

Why? Because Gearbox reportedly took the funds Sega shelled out for Aliens: Colonial Marines (A:CM) and use those funds on Borderlands, Borderlands 2 and Duke Nukem Forever, all three of which were published by 2K Games. The latter game was the biggest leech of the three, as Gearbox supposedly purchased the IP and hired on some of the 3D Realms team using the A:CM funds.

"Gearbox essentially lied to Sega, mishandled funds, broke agreements and contractual obligations to work on other projects, didn't want to work on a game they were contractually obligated to work on and gave it to another team, poor organization and direction on ACM, took on too many projects from different companies at once, and other things that we may not even know about," he said. "Hell, part of me believes that Gearbox wanted this thing delayed as much as possible so they can get more funding money to embezzle from Sega."

This anonymous executive also confirmed that 99-percent of the information that has been provided by the likes of Kotaku, Destructoid and others is true. "This is depressing as hell for all of us, because money that should go towards our paychecks and the well-being of the company was taken from us," he added.

Sega is reportedly looking to take legal action against Gearbox even though the contract has been fulfilled by the game's retail release. The source said that A:CM never should have been released in its current state, and would have given Sega a better defense. If anything, the publisher may have a case if it can prove that Gearbox used Sega's money to develop the two Borderlands games and Duke Nukem Forever.

"By all rights, Borderlands 1 and 2 should be a Sega published game, since they got the money from us to fund the game, and since those games are smash hits, our jobs here at Sega would be more secure and just having those two games, the Sega brand might be on a path to being revived somewhat," the unnamed Sega official said. "Instead, we're going through this difficult period of our lives, and people have lose their jobs from this, and in my view, having ACM game on their resume will damage their chances of getting back in the industry."

The blog is rather lengthy, and gives an outline what what's been said since A:CM hit the market weeks ago. One of the linked articles provided by the blog includes a timeline written by Kotaku which details how the game fell apart like a taped-together Android. Here's one of the quotes that seemingly backs up what the anonymous Sega executive described:

"Considering that Sega was pretty close to taking legal action against GBX, asking for an extension wasn't an option, and so Pecan crash-landed through certification and shipping. Features that were planned were oversimplified, or shoved in (a good example of this are challenges, which are in an incredibly illogical order). Issues that didn't cause 100% blockers were generally ignored, with the exception of absolutely horrible problems. This isn't because GBX didn't care, mind you. At a certain point, they couldn't risk changing ANYTHING that might cause them to fail certification or break some other system. And so, the product you see is what you get."

Ouch.

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