Sega and Gearbox, the makers of Aliens: Colonial Marines are getting hit with a class action suit over misleading advertising for the game.
The lawsuit, which was originally brought by Damion Perrine alleges that the companies knowingly released demos and trailers at conventions like E3 and PAX that portrayed the game as being better than it was.
The two companies seem to be in a bit of a pickle, since Sega at least has acknowledged that the videos were indeed misleading.
The company admitted that, hoping that the issue would go away and the entity that oversees the industry did say they felt the issue was dealt with. Perrine feels that it is still very much alive.
Aliens: Colonial Marines came under quite a bit of fire when the game was released because the game play graphics weren’t anywhere close to what the trailers were showing.
Gearbox seems to have stepped in it as well, thanks to a tweet by CEO Randy Pitchford. In that tweet, the head of the studio admitted that the majority of the complaints were “understood and fair.”
The lawsuit is in the very earliest stages and before it can really get rolling it will need to be certified by a court. Because the companies are basically admitting that some form of misleading advertising was going on, it seems likely that certification will come.
The step after that will be to figure out just how many people were actually mislead by the advertising and the videos that made the game look better than it really was.
After that will come questions to Sega and Gearbox about whether or not they want to go ahead and settle and stay out of the lengthy and costly trial process.
This is hardly the first problem surrounding the game. Earlier in the year Sega canceled the Wii U version of Aliens: Colonial Marines after initially delaying it several times.
