Randy Pitchford explains Aliens E3 no-show

Nothing to do with the game's quality. 'People are going to freak out when they see it.'

Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software, has explained why upcoming FPS Aliens: Colonial Marines wasn't shown at E3 this week, saying it was publisher SEGA's decision and had nothing to do with the current quality of the game.

We had up to the last minute expected to see the hotly anticipated 360, PS3 and PC shooter at the Los Angeles show, but found it absent from SEGA's booth. When we caught up with Pitchford over at 2K's booth to talk to the Gearbox president about his other upcoming shooter, Borderlands, he told us SEGA pulled Aliens for reasons relating to their "marketing and promotion strategy".

He said: "Here's the thing. I want to show it, everybody wants to see it. They're going to make the decision to do that when it's the best value for what their marketing and promotion strategy is."

When asked if the game had been pulled because it wasn't ready to be shown, Pitchford replied: "No, no, the game is in great shape. People are going to freak out when they see it. I can't wait to show it."

Pitchford's comments will come as some relief to Gearbox fans, some of whom took the game's E3 no-show as evidence that the game was running into technical difficulties.

Pitchford added that he didn't know when SEGA would take the lid off the game. "Well, I don't know. It's not up to me. I wish it was. Some things, like Borderlands, where we partner with a publisher like 2K, Gearbox is developing this original brand. There's control there. 2K of course is a brilliant publishing team. They launched BioShock. They're working really hard to help launch Borderlands. There's a different kind of strategy involved in communicating about the game. Also different rules. With something like Aliens, Fox owns that and SEGA has to worry about how they market and communicate within Fox's boundaries. I'm just so outside of the loop on that. I'm just doing my best to make a good game.

"I can't be in three places at once so I spent this E3 talking about Borderlands, and that's been really good. So maybe that's part of it too."

Expect the full, in depth and revealing interview with Gearbox's Randy Pitchford right here on VideoGamer.com early next week.