In a recent report, it is said that 20th Century Fox has trademarked the name Alien: Blackout. However, some think that this is for the upcoming Game Awards 2018, which is set to kick off on December 6th, 2018. On a concerning note, though, this game could bring a can of worms with it.
If you don’t know, Cold Iron and COLDIRON are trademarks of 20th Century Fox (Film Corporation). The company Cold Iron, acquired by FoxNext Games, happens to be working on an Alien game that’s currently hiring developers.
The following information comes from Gematsu (archive.is), which relays:
“20th Century Fox has trademarked “Alien: Blackout” for use with “computer game discs; software, namely game software,” and the like.
The teaser image for The Game Awards 2018, which will air on December 6, teases “Worlds with Change” repeated over and over with a 70s-themed font and a giant “W” in the upper left corner—similar the the Weyland-Yutani Corporation of the Alien franchise. Game designer Hideo Kojima, a friend of awards show host Geoff Keighley, has seemingly also helped tease an announcement.”
Later, the publication site posted the Twitter accounts @AlienBlackout and @Alien_Blackout, which were created in September of this year (2018).
To clear up any confusion, Alien video games, as of the past, were previously the domain of publisher Sega. Said publisher happens to be over Aliens vs. Predator, Aliens: Colonial Marines and Alien: Isolation — a longterm publishing arrangement with 20th Century Fox.
In other words, no sequel to the named titles above will likely happen at this point, meaning that this Alien: Blackout is its own thing and not a sequel to previous games published by Sega.
With all of that said, this brings us to some concerns about Cold Iron and FoxNext Games. The latter name is over the controversial Marvel Strike Force game, a free-to-play RPG, featuring the heroes and villains of the Marvel universe. The mobile game released this year and in August managed to create disgruntled players regarding its loot-box practices.
As for Cold Iron, I think this most recent tweet speaks for itself:
— Cold Iron Studios (@ColdIronStudios) November 15, 2018
Well, we’ll find out if the above information is true come December 6th, 2018. In the meantime, you can play detective by hitting up the given links if this project piques your interest.
