After The Walt Disney Company completed its acquisition of 21 Century Fox last March, plenty of big studio movies were thrown off the table including Wes Ball’s Mouse Guard (Ball now attached to make a new Planet of The Apes movie) movie which was just about to begin production when the plug was pulled. 

Well, the video game side of things also seemingly had their breaks pumped too after the merger. 

Fredrick Schreiber from Slipgate Ironworks and 3D Realms (spotted by our pals at AVPGalaxy) mentioned on Twitter that his team had been working a co-op Aliens game called Aliens: Hadley’s Hope that was killed

He was responding to news the Boss Key Productions had been in talks with Fox to make an Aliens game of their own featuring a playable adult Newt before the merger ended that opportunity. 

SCHRIBER: “This is crazy… we were in the talk about the exact same thing. New Aliens FPS, taking place at Hadleys Hope (4-player coop). Almost went through. Happened right around the time at the Disney acquisition, and when that happened, it all fell to the ground.”

 “Game was called Aliens: Hadleys Hope. We went quite far into pre-production before the Disney/Fox acquisition, and then we had to cancel it, and move on with something else.”

Here’s a rundown of what Aliens: Hadley’s Hope would have looked like via Fredrick.

A misfitting mix colonists and marines fight together for their lives against a protective alien Queen who’s willing to do whatever it takes to safeguard her eggs. 

Storyworld-driven PvE multiplayer adventure shooter dripping with atmosphere, lore, and suspense. And long-range plans to add new content for years. 

Developed by Slipgate Ironworks and 3D Realms. 

GAME CONCEPT 

Players group up to battle the alien Queen and her relentless swarm of alien Protectors. The game requires teamwork and tactics in order to make progress through each level. Only after surviving several levels will the team will face off against an alien Queen in her well-guarded lair. 

Unluckily for players, there are numerous alien Queens–this planet is a breeding ground with literally dozens of Queens and their hives. The initial release of the game will have several unique settings of levels, each with its own style and challenges. 

Levels will be packed with mission-critical goals, and also side-goals (like the egg hunt) that can reveal extra loot, additional story nuggets, and Alien lore easter eggs. 

Here are some of the details about the other game from Boss Key via Cliff Bleszinski which sounds like it might have been connected to Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 or at least inspired by it. Blomkamp’s film would have introduced audiences to an adult Newt and hinted to wanting that character to take over the franchise from Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. 

BLESZINSKI: “Before BKP shut down we were in talks to do a new game in the Aliens franchise with Fox. Then Disney bought them and that got lost in the shuffle, darnit. Ripley would be alive and be your Cortana/Anya. You’d play as grown Newt. On Earth. Weyland-Yutani are weaponizing the aliens in a Black Mesa style facility and, of course, all hell breaks loose. Your robotic pal i.e. Bishop? A new one named Casey after her doll in Aliens.”

I’m slightly curious if Cold Iron Studios’ first-person shooter will survive the recent sale of the developer by Disney along with FoxNext games to Scopely.  

Disney recently mentioned at 2020 DICE Summit in Las Vegas they were opening their IP (including stuff at 20th Century) to game developers to tell original stories with their popular characters and franchises similar to recent games such as Spider-Man and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order being handled by non-Disney developers. 

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with franchises like Alien, Predator, Marvel, and Star Wars moving forward. 

Predator: Hunting Grounds is a new upcoming game release coming out in April.

SOURCE: FREDERICK SCHREIBER & CLIFF BLESZINSKI