Gearbox Software's Aliens: Colonial Marines' release is entirely dependent on Rebellion's Aliens vs. Predator says Sega bigwig Mike Hayes, its success will matter.
It's unlikely the shooter from the Borderlands dev will hit within 6 months of its retail date, "but probably nine months" after. AvP stardom could mean Colonial Marines gets here faster.
If Rebellion's efforts bomb among gamers then Sega will want to distance the two titles from each other, and so you could expect a 2010 date completely out of the question.
"I think the detail of that is probably still too early," Hayes tells G4TV, on Colonial's release.
"What I would say is it's unlikely that we'd launch anything within six months, but probably nine months, eight to 12 months possibly. Though we literally are looking at that at the moment and a lot of is going to depend, as well, on how successful AvP is at the box."
"It's what level of 'well' does it do," continued Hayes, "do we then determine when we want to bring the next one out and then, of course, determine what the third one in the series is likely to be." That's right, Sega still plan a third Aliens title despite canning Obsidian's RPG.
"Oh, absolutely," in fact, said the Sega man. Which are you looking forward to more, videogamer? Some Colonial action, or perhaps some alien on alien visceral?
Aliens vs Predator is being released on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in Q1 2010.