Will you nuke the site from orbit? Y/N?
Back in late November, we reported that 20th Century Fox were working on a new video game in the Alien series, following on from the hugely successful (and absolutely terrifying) Alien: Isolation.
There wasn’t a huge amount known about Alien: Blackout at the time (not there is much more known now), but back in January 2018, 20th Century Fox subsidary FoxNext bought US games studio Cold Iron, with FoxNext’s president of studios Aaron Loeb saying:
“I am a personal fan of Cold Iron’s previous work and all of us at FoxNext Games are thrilled to be working with them as they create an action-packed persistent world, steeped in the mysteries of this beloved Alien universe.”
And finally, if you click on the Cold Iron studios website, one of the first things that pops up is a huge image of one of the xenomorphs from Aliens, and in the About Us section, it says the following:
“Currently, the team is working on a new PC and console shooter based on the Alien franchise.”
There were rumours that we would be seeing the first glimpse of the new game on 6 December at the Games Awards, but they proved to be inaccurate.
Instead, we got the first glimpse at the game (“game”?) this weekend, with this tiny 28-second teaser:
40 years ago, the Nostromo disappeared… In 2019, Amanda Ripley will uncover the secrets it left behind — no matter what. #AmandaRipley #ReadPlayWatch #January pic.twitter.com/N5XybNB1Tj
— Alien (@AlienAnthology) January 5, 2019
Yep, the first Alien movie was released 40 years ago this year – on 25 May 1979 to be precise – so this works out as a fantastic anniversary for the series.
Amanda Ripley was also the hero of Alien: Isolation, so it looks like we may be picking up with where we left off with her in the last game, but the tagline of “Read. Play. Watch.”, which would seem to indicate either the story is going to be told on numerous platforms – as in a book/comic book, and a video game, and a TV show/movie – or it is going to be more interactive for the viewer/player, much like the recent Netflix hit Bandersnatch.
Either way, it would seem that there is more to the Alien story that we knew already, as Amanda is set to uncover all of the secrets of her mother’s missing ship… so here is hoping that they don’t warp it too out of shape in the same way that Prometheus and Alien: Covenant already have!
One more thing, we would have guessed that the project might be released in May to tie-in perfectly with the anniversary, but the tweet purposefully hashtags the word “January” under the teaser, so we might be getting it much sooner than anyone realised.
Watch this space… (Geddit? Cos the movies are set in space…)
