Gearbox Software President Randy Pitchford has confirmed that the company's new "War Hero" trademarks are for "something down the road." In a statement sent to outlets, including ShackNews, Pitchford states the War Hero series isn't signed to a publishing partner yet, nor has the developer even talked to any potential partners.

We couldn't help but ask the company if the title had any involvement with Activsion and would use some sort of plastic peripheral? A company spokesperson said, "This has no relation to Guitar Hero." But, but, it has hero right in the title! Doesn't Activision Blizzard own the word by this point?

Oooh! We get it now. Gearbox wants Infinity Ward to quit making war games so it can get a piece. After the last Brother in Arms made a hasty retreat for the bargain bin, Gearbox looks like it could be deploying a new strategy: the Trojan horse.

A slew of new trademarks suggests the studio might try to sneak future games off of store shelves and into consumers' homes by disguising them as a cross between Activision's growing "Hero" brand and its Call of Duty games. Among the trademarked: "War Hero," "World War II Hero," "Brother In Arms War Hero," and -- saving the best for last -- "Modern War Hero." We can hear the conversation at GameStop already:

Madden Guy #1: Modern War Hero? Hey, bro, this the new Call of Duty?
Madden Guy #2: Yeah, broheim. Definitely.
Madden Guy #1: Sweeeeeet! New Madden ain't out yet -- I'm all over this.
Madden Guy #2: True. I'm not gonna lie, it sounds like you can play with your Guitar Hero guitar.
Madden Guy #1: Dude. Niiiiiice.

Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford wants Bungie and Infinity Ward to leave behind the Halo and Call of Duty/Modern Warfare brands and create something new. While he prefaced his comments by showering both devs with celestial praise, Pitchford said he is eagerly anticipating new intellectual properties from each team.

"I keep waiting to hear what Bungie is going to do that's not Halo," Pitchford told VideoGamer at E3. "Same with Infinity Ward. It's like, dude I'm totally psyched to get my Call of Duty fix every year, but you guys are amazing! What else have you got? Can you give me something I haven't seen before?"

Pitchford does admit it's difficult to walk away from established brands when the risk of creating a new IP is so high, but says innovators need to be rewarded so that teams "making big bets can take that risk."

Gearbox Software itself is no stranger to established brands. After porting Halo: Combat Evolved to PC in 2003, Gearbox developed the Brothers in Arms series, which has seen 10 titles released across 11 platforms since its debut in 2005. Gearbox is currently developing the new IP Borderlands, which is set to hit the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this fall.

The big, green gooey eggs containing Sega's long in development Aliens: Colonial Marines and Aliens RPG are going to hatch -- just not soon. When we asked why the games were absent from this year's E3, Sega replied, "Aliens vs. Predator will be the first to ship out of our triplet of Aliens titles; hence it was shown at this year's E3. We'll have more news to share about the other two games in the near future so stay tuned." Rumors of both titles being jettisoned out an airlock have been swirling since earlier this year.

In addition, Gearbox Software prez Randy Pitchford has confirmed to Kotaku that Colonial Marines lives on in now-gen console and handheld form on DS. Pitchford told the site that Gearbox is not developing the portable title, lending more credence to purported footage of a WayForward-developed Colonial Marines that leapt out of the darkness last month. We've put word into Obsidian, developers of Aliens RPG, for confirmation of that title's status.

Gearbox has confirmed its casual E3 mention to Joystiq that it plans to release Borderlands this October. A company representative told us today that it's looking forward to breaking new ground this fall when the "role-playing shooter with strong co-op and split-screen gameplay" is released. The rep also confirmed that the post-apocalyptic action game will launch simultaneously on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Borderlands had been banging around for a while, then disappeared for an awkward period of time before ultimately reemerging – think: butterfly – with a new art style, which freshened up the title and removed it from "Fallout clone" territory. We'll have our E3 impression of the title up soon.

Life's tough in the lawless lands of Borderlands. You have to watch out for machete-wielding maniacs, gigantic saw blade-wielding death machines, and the pincer-equipped beasts that roam the lands looking for human blood. But, hey, as deadly a place as it is, at least it looks damn good.

You can catch the new trailer past the break.

What's the real deal with the Aliens franchise, recently? Ask Sega -- except don't, because you're pretty unlikely to get a straight answer from the company regarding the whereabouts of Aliens: Colonial Marines or the Obsidian-developed Aliens RPG. This new video, which can be seen after the break, is even more mysterious. It appears to be a 2D side-scrolling Aliens game developed by WayForward -- the people making A Boy and His Blob -- and Gearbox, developer of the console and PC version of Colonial Marines (if it still exists, that is).

Could this be a DS version of that same title, or is this something completely separate? Is it in development, or scrapped? The video description says it's a canceled project that was completed and shelved due to financial trouble at Sega. We've reached out to Sega for comment, but we're not counting on finding out much.

[Via Destructoid]

Aliens: Colonial Marines, one of the three Alien titles allegedly in production, has had a lot of ups and downs over the past six months. First we were unclear whether layoffs at developer Gearbox Software would affect the title, then we were assured it was to be released in Q1 2009, then we were tipped it was supposedly canceled -- so what's actually going on with the game? Well, we're still not really sure.

Shacknews noticed that over on Gearbox's website, the company is recruiting for "all projects," and furthermore, the Alien project was listed at time of press as "in-development" (currently it lists development as "TBA," having updated that specific page on the website as of today). We contacted Steve Gibson, marketing director for Gearbox, to ask about the recent news and if Aliens: Colonial Marines is still being developed by the studio. "Neither Sega nor Gearbox have ever announced any status changes. We're not making any announcements at this time beyond that we are recruiting for all projects," he told us this morning.

While not directly confirming the continued development of the game, Mr. Gibson's answer leads us to believe that, as the game has never been officially canceled, the studio is still working on it. As you're likely used to hearing around this time of year, we're just going to have to wait 'til E3 to find out for sure what's going on.

We really aren't going to get into a semantic discussion about Borderlands' new art style, so feel free to call it cel-shaded or illustrative, it's all marketing-speak bullet-points to us at this stage. Thing is, the game looks totally different than it did back in the day.

We're just curious to see what Borderlands looks like in action now, and we'll hopefully have that chance at E3, commencing in just a little over a month. Check out the gallery below for new images (for the internets, at least), and be sure to click the hi-res button in the gallery to embiggen.

It's not much, but here's the first complete image of Borderlands' new art style. Gearbox claims the image is "completely in-game as you will see Borderlands when you play it." To see more images of the game you'll have to pick up the June issue of PC Gamer or ... well, you can probably guess other places to find them. To see what the game used to look like, check out the gallery below:

As we recently reported, Gearbox's Borderlands has been running dark for a while and has now emerged with a whole new art style. The latest issue of PC Gamer apparently has images of the Mad Max simulator's new art direction, which appears to be an illustrative or cel-shaded style -- say goodbye to Borderlands' previous Fallout 3-esque motif.

Gearbox states on its community boards that the change was made to make a more "visually interesting experience." Allegedly, the gameplay hasn't been affected by the new art style -- not that we'd know, considering we've never actually touched the game, which is supposed to come out later this year.

[Via Big Download]

Update: Gearbox Studio head Randy Pitchford has sent out a statement (posted after the break) that the game's art style is not "cel-shaded." We've also learned that web-ready images will hopefully be available for consumption by the internet on Monday, and the game should be on display -- possibly playable -- at E3.

The PC Gamer cover [above; in full after break] features "an in-game screenshot with no post process," giving us an idea of the new art style and rendering tech.

Sega has allegedly pulled funding from both Obsidian's Aliens RPG and Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines, sources have revealed to Joystiq. Supposedly, 20 people were laid off from Obsidian yesterday and more could soon lose their jobs. The layoffs also affected the team working on Alpha Protocol, another Obsidian-developed, Sega-published title. Without the Aliens RPG, Obsidian is apparently on the ropes, our sources say.

As for Gearbox, Sega allegedly stopped paying the developer for its work on Colonial Marines for "a while" -- production has since ceased. At this point, it's unclear whether Colonial Marines has been "halted" or "canceled," which Gearbox president Randy Pitchford – in response to a previous rumor – called an "inaccurate characterization."

This rumor comes less than 24 hours after Sega announced Aliens vs. Predator and refused to answer questions about the previously announced Aliens titles. Sega turning off the money tap wouldn't exactly be shocking, given the company plans to lay off 560 people and already lost $119 million in the first three quarters of its fiscal year. Requests for clarification from Sega and Gearbox on the status of the titles have not yet been returned as of press time. An Obsidian representative responded with "no comment" to our inquiry. If you're one of those let go, or have any further information, please feel free to contact us.

Amazon's Deal of the Day is one of those games we've wanted to try, but felt the investment was too risky: Samba de Amigo. Maybe you experienced similar trepidation: at $30 or even $20, it would be a terrible disappointment if the Wiimote/Nunchuk controls failed to accurately imitate the Dreamcast's maraca controllers.

At $10, however, the risk is minimal and the potential reward -- a candy-colored world of super-happy cartoon monkeys and exciting music -- seems worth it. Besides, it is a music game that has Ulala in it, and is therefore by definition better than 90% of the world's music games.

No, we don't believe it either, but at least Sega has confirmed that the nebulous development of Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines is still ongoing. According to a release list issued to UK site VideoGamer.com, Sega currently has the xenophobic first-person shooter pinned to the first quarter of its 2009 release calendar -- though the article questions whether said calendar is Gregorian or fiscal.

Joining Colonial Marines in the Q1 '09 release window is Obsidian's Bauer-esque spy RPG, Alpha Protocol. We've contacted Sega of America to clarify these dates and confirm the other titles on the list, including House of the Dead: Overkill (February), Sonic and the Black Knight (March) and Bayonetta (a vague "2009").