Layoffs hit studio behind Aliens: Colonial Marines

TimeGate, the studio behind Section 8 and Aliens: Colonial Marines, has laid off its staff today, according to multiple sources who've spoken with Kotaku.

Last week, TimeGate filed for bankruptcy, since the studio owed millions of dollars to various creditors. However, publisher SouthPeak Interactive was trying to change the Chapter 11 bankruptcy (which they felt was a ruse) to a Chapter 7 liquidation.

While I'm not privy to TimeGate's financial woes — and thus can't determine how much the failure of Aliens: Colonial Marines contributed to this layoff — it looks and feels like they're taking the fall for Gearbox's mismanagement of the game. Colonial Marines was delayed numerous times and development switched hands quite a bit. In February, "Gearbox CEO Rayndy Pitchford told IGN that TimeGate worked on "probably about 20 or 25 percent of the total time" on the game, adding that "their effort's probably equivalent to ours."

There's no comment from TimeGate or Gearbox at this time, but we'll update accordingly or more information becomes available.

You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at LLiebl@GameZone.com

[Kotaku]