10 Disastrous Video Games That Lost Their Creators Millions

3. Aliens: Colonial Marines

It was supposed to be the triumphant return of the Aliens franchise to video games, but it ended up being one of the big scandals and financial disasters of video game history. It's thought that around $60 million was spent on Colonial Marines, but even though it sold over a million copies worldwide, it was not nearly enough to make back its budget. Nor did it deserve to, because the final product was shambolic. The only thing it had in common with the legendary movies was the fact that xenomorphs were scampering around all over the place (despite the developers claiming it was faithful to the film canon). Infamously, the final game looked far inferior to the pre-release demos Gearbox had shown off at E3, leading plenty of the game's buyers feeling cheated. There were also controversies surrounding the development itself, with one Gearbox employee claiming that the developer was channelling Aliens' budget into the Borderlands series. In his defence, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford said that he'd invested $10 million of his own money into Aliens: Colonial Marines, and "lost it all". Ouch. Whatever the case, the game was an unmitigated disaster, though at least the beloved franchise didn't suffer too much and made a great comeback a few years later with the excellent Alien: Isolation.