Gears of War Creator Almost Made an Alien Game Starring Newt

Infamous Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski has revealed via Twitter that he was once part of discussions that may have led to a unique Alien action game.  

“Funfact: Before BKP shut down we were in talks to do a new game in the Aliens franchise with Fox,” says Bleszinski via Twitter. “Then Disney bought them and that got lost in the shuffle, darnit.”

That’s interesting and all that, but what’s really catching everyone’s attention is that Bleszinski’s concept for the title would have seen you play as Newt from Aliens. 

“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,” Bleszinski explains. “Your robotic pal i.e. Bishop? A new one named ‘Casey’ after her doll in Aliens.”

While Bleszinski doesn’t elaborate on this concept beyond that, there are a few details to be found in what he does share. For instance, he notes that all of this was happening before “BKP shut down.” BKP stands for Boss Key Productions; Bleszinski’s old game studio which was shut down in 2018. It’s believed the negotiations between Fox and Disney really started to heat up in 2017, so it’s likely that any discussions regarding this game happened around that time. That said, we really don’t know how far those discussions went.

As for the concept itself, it sounds like this game would have basically re-written the Alien mythology following the events of Aliens. That’s up for debate given that there are a million ways this whole thing could have played out as it was developed, but the idea of essentially re-writing Alien lore via a game remains a fascinating one. Actually, it’s worth noting that developer Obsidian was also reportedly working on an RPG based on the Alien franchise which fell apart years before this project reportedly did.

Whether or not this Alien game from Bleszinski would have actually been…well…good is a matter of some debate. While Bleszinski’s track record is largely impressive, the fact remains that BKP’s two titles (LawBreakers and Radical Heights) both received mixed-to-negative receptions and were generally criticized for chasing trends. Perhaps it could have all come together in the end, but between BKP’s track record and things like Bleszinski’s recent beliefs that LawBreakers ended up failing because it was too “woke,” we’re not entirely convinced that everyone involved with this hypothetical project was at the top of their game. 

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014.