Silent_Buddha
Legend
Likely because the in game assets at the previously high quality level weren't complete. And rather than dedicated time and money to finishing those AND making new assets for PS3 AND thus risking a delay and a potential lawsuit from SEGA, they decided that it was best to make ship date on PS3/X360/PC as they contract demanded than to risk split asset development and delay shipping any version that might trigger a contract dispute and potential lawsuit.
Nothing Gearbox did seems particularly noteworthy. Titles are farmed out all the time. Even studio specific core IPs get farmed out (iD software did it with the Quake IP for instance, Epic did it with the Unreal IP, there's even current AAA IP that's getting farmed out while developers owning the IP work on next gen stuff).
So Aliens getting farmed out, isn't terribly surprising even if it is disappointing. So if SEGA didn't know about it and approve it, then that shows a serious lack of Publisher oversight on their end. Hence, SEGA likely approved the subcontracting, although it's also likely that they expected a bit more oversight of Timegate by Gearbox as well.
The one thing that can be laid entirely at Gearbox's feet, however, is the non-coordination between the original story-writer and the new one at Timegate, assuming that's true.
Either way the whole thing is a mess from the sounds of it. But nothing that's been divulged thus far seems to be particularly noteworthy when it comes to modern day game development.
Now, just don't let PS3 fans know about it being the limiting factor. They'd be heartbroken.
Regards,
SB
