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Atari, Human Head resume development of shooter Minimum
Atari has partnered with Prey developer Human Head to resurrect Minimum, a free-to-play online shooter presumed lost following the closure of its creator TimeGate Studios. Announced last year, Minimum is a third-person shooter with strategy and progression elements, featuring competitive gameplay bolstered by a weapons-crafting mechanic. Gameplay is partially similar to Respawn's Titanfall, as players can equip traversal-enhancing jetpacks and summon gigantic Titans during battle. A beta version of Minimum will launch for PC platforms this spring. [Image: Atari]
Aliens: Colonial Marines DLC concludes with 'Stasis Interrupted'
The final Aliens: Colonial Marines DLC, "Stasis Interrupted," is available on Xbox Live, PSN and Steam today. This single-player add-on, which is free for Season Pass holders and $10 for everyone else, follows three different characters through an interlocking story, ultimately shedding light on what went down with Corporal Dwayne Hicks between Aliens and Alien 3. Despite being panned by critics, Aliens: Colonial Marines wasn't a total dud for publisher Sega: As of May, 1.31 million copies of the first-person shooter have been shipped out into the wild. A Wii U version was also in the works before being canned.
Report: Timegate closes its doors
Timegate, the studio behind Section 8 and Aliens: Colonial Marines, laid off its entire staff today, Kotaku reports. On May 2, Timegate filed for bankruptcy protection, citing a debt of up to $50 million. The filing revealed that Timegate owed large sums to 50 companies, including Epic Games, Agora Games and DJ2 Entertainment. In April, Timegate lost an appeal against publisher SouthPeak Interactive, potentially losing the Section 8 license and adding $7.35 million to its debt. SouthPeak fought for Timegate's closure in arbitration and won, leading to today's layoffs, the report says. Timegate let go 25 employees in March, citing a rough transition to next-gen consoles and a publishing deal that fell through. The studio's most recent project is Minimum, a free-to-play shooter for PC that was supposed to launch on Steam Early Access on April 16. Minimum is currently not listed anywhere on Steam.
Colonial Marines co-dev TimeGate files for bankruptcy protection
Section 8 developer and Aliens: Colonial Marines co-developer TimeGate Studios has filed for bankruptcy protection in the Texas Southern Bankruptcy Court, revealing that it owes its creditors between $10 million and $50 million in debt. Court documents note that TimeGate seeks protection from creditors while it reexamines its finances, Polygon reports. Currently, the company owes large, unspecified amounts to partners such as Epic Games, Agora Games and DJ2 Entertainment. The petition names nearly 50 creditors in all. TimeGate recently lost an appeal in its long-running legal battle with publisher SouthPeak Interactive, potentially owing $7.35 million in damages and losing its rights to the Section 8 intellectual property. Aliens: Colonial Marines, which TimeGate developed in partnership with Gearbox Software, is the subject of an ongoing class action lawsuit. TimeGate's current project, the minimalist free-to-play shooter Minimum, was announced in April.
TimeGate loses SouthPeak appeal, faces $7.3M in damages
TimeGate Studios lost the latest round in court of its battle against publisher SouthPeak Interactive, which could result in the studio paying $7.35 million in damages and losing the Section 8 intellectual property. Polygon obtained the court documents that SouthPeak recently won its appeal of arbitration handled early last year.The two companies have been fighting in court since 2009, when TimeGate sued SouthPeak for embezzling royalties and SouthPeak took on Timegate for fraudulent misrepresentation in its publishing agreement.TimeGate most recently co-developed Aliens: Colonial Marines and laid off 25 employees. It is currently working on the free-to-play shooter Minimum. Meanwhile, Southpeak is busy... um, looks like it's busy making money through litigation. The publisher hasn't produced a game since Stronghold 3 in 2011 according to its own website.
Minimum: a free-to-play shooter from TimeGate [update]
Texas-based developer TimeGate Studios has announced that it's working on a new free-to-play, third-person match-based shooter called Minimum.Minimum boasts a simplistic look, and has you building a character up during each life, adding more and more power-ups to your weapons (ranging from ice-powered sniper rifles to flaming katanas) as you go. In Titan, the "signature" game mode according to the FAQ, players support two giant creatures fighting each other during the match.TimeGate also says it hopes to bring "everyone to the development table to influence how the game grows and changes." Minimum will be in closed alpha soon, and is set for a Steam release whenever it's ready.TimeGate is probably best known at the moment for its work on Aliens: Colonial Marines, but the company also made Section 8 and Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns in the past, so Minimum is coming from a substantial history of development experience for PC.Update: The game will be available through Steam's Early Access channel on April 16 in North America.
Aliens: Colonial Marines patch fixes a lot of things, even the flamethrower
Clean up on aisle Aliens: Colonial Marines – Sega launched a patch to address a few of the issues in Colonial Marines, including various visual improvements, improved texture resolution, audio fixes, increased enemy and friendly AI responsiveness, modified enemy collision detection and NPC navigation, fixed spawning issues, removal of the ability to walk outside of maps, and many more, listed in full below.Our favorite from this extensive list has to be, "Addressed an issue where Ripley's Flamethrower (bonus content) would sometimes fire continuously without player input." The update should automatically install on Steam, so unfortunately there's no way to keep that particular glitch (feature?) in your game.When Colonial Marines launched in February, we found it to be a broken, unfinished mess, and most others agreed. Since it hit stores, developers Gearbox, TimeGate and publisher Sega have yet to agree where the blame lies. TimeGate let go 25 people in early March.
Report: Layoffs at Aliens: Colonial Marines dev TimeGate Studios
Twenty-five people were laid off at TimeGate Studios, one of the developers behind the recent bomb Aliens: Colonial Marines, Polygon reports. TimeGate President Adel Chaveleh says the layoffs are spurred, in part, by the transition to next-gen consoles, and Polygon cites a publishing deal that fell through."Today, we had to make the difficult decision to let go of some great game developers," Chaveleh says. "This is never easy, and we're doing all we can to assist those developers affected. TimeGate is preparing, as is the entire industry, for the transition to next-generation consoles and new business models. As part of this reinvention, all projects and strategic initiatives continue to move forward at the studio."TimeGate is based in Houston, Texas. Since its announcement in 2006, Gearbox Software spearheaded development of Aliens: Colonial Marines, though the work was shared with TimeGate.
Surviving the Xenomorph offensive in Aliens: Colonial Marines
The stranded squad of space marines makes hasty preparations amid the flickering lights of a ruined former colony's command center. A scrounged sentry turret sits idle in a corner of the room, slowly scanning for signs of non-human life. Raging storms outside mask the sounds of creatures scuttling through air ducts, but the ever-present rhythmic beeping of motion trackers fill the air with ferocious frequency as the alien menace approaches.Murky shapes take form as they leap into the light, slick, inky-black creatures with pronounced ridges lining their bodies. A shotgun burst drops the first attacker in an instant, its inert body slumping to the floor as a burst of acid blood sprays over a nearby squaddie.Gearbox Software is a studio of many talents, but the developer's biggest success on Aliens: Colonial Marines may well end up being how accurately it's managed to nail the feel of the famous sci-fi series. This is vital, as anyone who has seen the movies can understand. There's nothing in the science fiction genre quite like the franchise's Xenomorphs, a race of highly aggressive and agile beings with acid for blood and the ability to reproduce through something akin to a cross-species infection. Xenomorphs in Aliens: Colonial Marines slide through the environment with the same sort of ease that they do in the movies, as we learned during a recent hands-on demo of the game's campaign. An unseen network of air ducts connects every room and corridor, so any alien that slips out of sight will eventually emerge elsewhere. Probably behind you.%Gallery-173092%
Aliens: Colonial Marines Wii U version overseen by Shoot Many Robots studio
Don't count out that Wii U version of Aliens: Colonial Marines, despite Gearbox pushing its launch to an unknown spot beyond the 360/PS3/PC version's February 2013 date. Gearbox head Randy Pitchford says that Shoot Many Robots studio Demiurge Studios has been overseeing the Wii U version for the past nine months, alongside both Nerve and Timegate.Pitchford couldn't speak to many specifics of the game, but he did extol the Wii U controller. "When I play with the controller, I immediately realize that for the types of games I like to play and make, this is the best controller I've ever had from Nintendo." He also teases one potential use for the WiiPad, saying, "For Aliens: Colonial Marines, it's really exciting to have that screen there because I can do things that are very unique to this universe. For instance, we have a motion tracker in this universe. Now our motion tracker can literally be in our hands and we can see and hear it –and scan the room in 360 degrees, since it's a motion device."Aliens: Colonial Marines launches on February 13, 2013 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The Wii U version is expected some time beyond that date.
Timegate wins arbitration dispute against SouthPeak
Texas district Judge Keith Ellison has invalided an arbitrator's ruling that ordered Section 8 developer Timegate to repay the game's publisher, SouthPeak, $7.3 million in allegedly misused development funds. The ruling also rewrote Timegate's publishing contract with SouthPeak, granting SouthPeak a permanent license for Section 8's IP and its sequels.The arbitrator's decision was thrown out on the grounds that the rewritten publishing contract did not match the intent of the original document. Arbitrators are allowed to rewrite legally binding agreements, but only so long as the resulting agreement matches the spirit of the original document. Timegate and SouthPeak's original publishing agreement was very clear that Timegate would retain all IP rights for the brand -- changing this was beyond the scope of the original contract's intent and was therefore inappropriate.This all started back in the neolithic caveman days of 2009, when Timegate sued SouthPeak, claiming that the publisher had altered revenue reports in order to retain royalties meant for Timegate, which is embezzlement.SouthPeak countersued, claiming that Timegate fraudulently misrepresented itself in order to convince SouthPeak (which acquired original Section 8 publisher Gamecock) to enter into the publishing agreement. It also claimed that Section 8's lackluster retail performance was solely Timegate's fault, and that Timegate had failed to contribute a required $2.5 million in development funds, misused the $7.5 million in development funds provided by SouthPeak, and failed to give SouthPeak revenue from Section 8's PC sequel and PS3 port.This tale is likely far from over, however, as SouthPeak still has the ability to appeal Judge Ellison's ruling.
Section 8: Prejudice diving into PlayStation Store July 26
Timegate's undeniably beefy multiplayer-centric shooter, Section 8: Prejudice, has been racking up kills on Xbox Live Arcade since late April. In a little under two weeks, PS3 owners will get to see what all the fuss is about (hint: skydiving), as PlayStation Blog just announced the downloadable, $15 title will touch down on PSN July 26 in North America, and July 27 in Europe. To help jump-start the community's growth on the new platform, Timegate is handing out the Blitz Armor Pack and Overdrive Map Pack to anyone who grabs the game during its first week on PSN. What's more, the first 1,000 PlayStation Plus users to download the title will receive in-game Hunter Armor, as well as a free download of the original Section 8. You're essentially doubling your bang for your buck, and by "bang," we mean "whoosh," because that's the sound you make when you're skydiving.
Section 8: Prejudice getting new maps and mode this month
TimeGate Studios has introduced a new map pack and game mode coming to Section 8: Prejudice later this month. The Frontier Colonies Map Pack will be out on July 13 on Xbox 360 and PC for 320 Microsoft Points/$3.99, and will bring Desolation, a desert map featuring the ruins of a previous colonization, and Overseer, which offers fighting through military facilities in a "habitable forest valley." Both of those maps will be available for all game modes. They'll also support the new Skirmish mode, which will arrive for free later this summer. Skirmish mode plays like Team Deathmatch, but all of that killing is taking place while you're also earning Victory points for completing missions. Control Points are out of the game, however, and players will need to adjust as needed. Sounds interesting -- TimeGate promises more info on that mode and a release of the map pack on PSN coming soon.
Section 8: Prejudice patched, DLC'd and double XP'd
If you can handle a hot drop from orbit, then just maybe you can handle this Section 8: Prejudice news bomb. First, the Overdrive Map Pack is now available for $4 Xbox 360 and $4.49 on Games for Windows Live. In celebration of the two new maps, Prejudice players can enjoy a double XP weekend starting on Friday at 1AM EST and ending on Monday at 1AM EST. Second, a patch has been delivered to both versions of the game, tweaking or fixing several stability and gameplay issues. Players will be happy to hear that several crashes have been fixed and that autobalance will now "more aggressively" attempt to places players with their friends during matches. Head over to the TimeGate forums for the full patch notes and find a new trailer after the break.%Gallery-124998%
Section 8: Prejudice Overdrive Map Pack coming June 1
Are you familiar with the nooks, crannies and sweet, skydiveable air above each of the maps included in TimeGate Studios' beefy downloadable shooter, Section 8: Prejudice? Next Tuesday, June 1, the game will receive the Overdrive Map Pack, a bundle which includes two new maps which will be playable in all game modes: A magma-covered battlefield known as Abaddon, and a decidedly colder frozen wasteland called Sky Dock. The two new maps will launch on Xbox Live Marketplace and Games for Windows Marketplace for 320 Microsoft Points ($3.99). Sounds like a fair price for the raw, visceral thrill of plummeting into a pool of volcanic rock. Yes, that's not the smartest strategic move, but c'mon.
Section 8: Prejudice players reach 10 million kills, Assault Mode unlocked
TimeGate has announced that players across the PC and Xbox 360 versions of Section 8: Prejudice have reached the combined goal of 10 million in-game kills, thus unlocking the new Assault Mode. The objective-based gametype is now available to all players on both versions of the game. In Assault, the attacking team tries to capture all designated control points on a map, while the defending team attempts to hold onto them for as long as possible. TimeGate has also announced plans for an Xbox Live Game with Developers session this Sunday, May 15 from 5–8PM ET. Head over to the Xbox.com events page for details.
10 million kills in Section 8: Prejudice unlocks Assault mode
To coincide with the launch of the PC version of Section 8: Prejudice, TimeGate has announced a new community objective for both PC and Xbox 360 players. A kill counter has been launched on the Prejudice website tracking online kills across both versions of the game. Once the counter reaches 10 million -- which will hopefully happen soon, given it's already over 7.5 million -- the new Assault mode will be unlocked. In Assault mode, the attacking team attempts to capture all control points on the map. The defending team, naturally, tries to hold off the attackers as long as it can. The new mode will be free to both PC and Xbox 360 players once it is unlocked.
Dedicated server support added to Section 8: Prejudice on XBLA
Well, this is certainly unexpected. No Xbox Live Arcade game to date has been afforded a dedicated server option. That is, until now. TimeGate Studios has announced that its recently released, multiplayer-centric title, Section 8: Prejudice, now allows Xbox Live players to access and play on PC-hosted servers through GameServers ... for a small fee. Dedicated servers can host ranked or unranked matches with support for up to 32 players. The monthly charges will run you $1.29 a player, plus a little extra something something if you want to purchase support for a standalone voice chat program. You can place your order for a dedicated server for the XBLA version now -- PC and PS3 players should look sharp, though, as the same support is on its way to their respective versions of the shooter.
Section 8: Prejudice PC pre-order bonuses, stat portal video
With Section 8: Prejudice now available on Xbox Live Arcade, TimeGate has announced the pre-order bonuses for the upcoming PC version. Prejudice will be available via Steam, Games for Windows Live and Direct2Drive, all of which will offer different pre-order incentives. Those who pre-order on Steam will receive a ten percent discount, knocking the $15 price down to $13.49. Games for Windows Live pre-orders get the Explosion Pack, which unlocks the Riot Mod pulse cannon as well as Concussion Detpacks for in-game use. Direct2Drive pre-orders also get in-game goodies, namely the Lightning Pack, which unlocks EMP rounds for the pulse cannon, tagger rounds for the sniper rifle and Blitz armor. Section 8: Prejudice will be released on PC May 4. TimeGate has also released a video detailing the game's online stat tracking portal because, hey, this is a portal kind of week. Check it out after the break.
Section 8: Prejudice launch trailer skydives into our hearts
Few trailers are as comprehensive as this launch video for Section 8: Prejudice. It's got a little slice of everything included in the game: Hectic gunfights, vehicles, armor customization, objective-based gameplay and, of course, some of the most haphazard skydiving in recorded history.
