Sega announced a deal with 20th Century Fox to put out Alien games on the Next Generation Platforms, starting with a FPS and an RPG to be released in 2009.

Personally, I'm glad someone picked up the Alien license, and all the better that it's Sega. They always seems to be hit (Otogi) and miss (Shadow the Hedgehog), but with a franchise as important as Alien, I'm sure they'll give it the appropriate care it needs... I hope. Given my current experience playing Full Auto 2: Battlelines, I'm more than inclined to believe that if

The The Hollywood Reporter picked up a bit more information, including that the games will not directly be based off of the four movies, but may include characters or elements.

There's always been this idea that movies make terrible games, but when your movie (or franchise, in this case) has been out forever, does it still apply? Recently The Godfather and Scarface have come out which aren't bad which is saying something I guess. But then there were Die Hard:Nakatomi Plaza and Fight Club, real dogs by any stretch if the imagination.

Can you really make an RPG out of the franchise (the RTS was awful)? Any particular Alien games stick out in anyone's mind as being a cut above the rest?

Chronicles of Riddick is undeniable proof that it's possible to make a good (if not great) movie tie-in game. I think as long as they keep Anderson the hell away from the franchise from now on it should be alright.

Although the idea of an Alien RPG seems a bit off to me...

That's probably the team that Sega should be bringing in to do it. Throwing Sega's name at it makes me think of an Alien-themed Outtrigger, more arcadey and faster-paced than it should be. It's not that I think that Sega's incapable, but this isn't the type of franchise that you want to be basing on Japanese gamer's tastes first. FPS isn't exactly their favorite genre.

As far as an RPG goes, I think it could be done. I think the KOTOR/Mass Effect setup could be tweaked and applied to it easily. At the same time, it's a license that could be easily screwed up as an RPG.

Ooooh, a Mass Effect-style Alien RPG. An Alien game done in that style would be delicious. Congratulations, you've just changed my mind. Now I'm going to be disappointed if they don't do it like that.

Sega has always made good games without licences, so good in fact that their original games can be regarded as just as strong names as an expensive movie licence. Why do you need Alien when you have Sonic?

Can't we have both?

Always may be a bit strong. Sega has been involved with many hits and misses. Chromehounds, Full Auto 2, the Monkey Ball series, the Virtual Figher series, the crazy taxi games... all great.

Full Auto 1, Sonic Riders, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Rush... Pretty much all misses.

It's pretty polarized.... it really depends on who ends up making the game.

No, Sega has always made good games. They have also always made bad games, but that is impossible to avoid if you are as productive as Sega. Few other companies would have managed to have both a successful arcade division while feeding four or five consoles of their own with new titles.

Fox Interactive made games based on Alien, Die Hard, and Independence Day for Acclaim back in the mid-'90s. I've heard that they're not as bad as the other Acclaim games, but I haven't played them yet.

I think Alien would make a neat Swat 4 kinda tactical game. But if the guys that made Riddick make it then I'll buy it regardless. That game was awesome-a-power. RPG? That could be interesting too. As much as I like the idea of applying licenses to genres they might not naturally easily belong to, Star Wars has ruined all the fun.

Looks like the FPS will be developed by Gearbox, and the RPG by Obsidian.

Alien Trilogy was already dated when it was released, still a decent, moody FPS. The first Die Hard Trilogy was pretty good. Haven't played Independence Day, but the reviews weren't favorable.

Unless I find a copy of Alien Trilogy for Saturn or PS, I don't think I'll ever get to enjoy it. I had a PC that was within spec at the time it was released, but it wouldn't go for more than 2-5 minutes without crashing. I was going to install it last weekend, but I did some digging and it turns out that the game doesn't recognize more than 64 megs of ram, so it won't run on modern machines. I'm pretty well screwed, because I don't think I've got anything under 128 megs of RAM. It's pretty sad when the original Doom can run on modern stuff and a clone can't.

Die Hard Trilogy wasn't bad. It's aging a bit. I never played Die Hard Trilogy 2, but it seemed to get decent reviews too.

Independence Day completely sucked, even for the time it was released.

Case in (my) point: I received a press release today, that Sega is going to make a new Alien Syndrome game. There you go, they already have a franchise of their own, no need to buy one from someone else.

Nobody's mentionned the two PC FPS Alien VS Predator games, so let me just say they do a good job of capturing the Aliens atmosphere of the movie. Any fan should at least try to get their hands on them for one play through. The Predators are there too, but make no mistake... it's the Aliens universe.

An Alien vs Predator RPG game? We already have that. It's called X-COM. Though a (modern) first perspective 3D RPG (in comparison to classic RPGs) really isn't my thing. The Elder Scrolls series is an exception to the rule.

Those are pretty sweet games. The second one is just fantastic. I don't have much hope of an Alien-themed rpg though....

An RPG could explore aspects of the universe other than the Colonial Marines, which could be very interesting, IMHO.

That was what they said about the RTS ;)

Alien 3 for SNES and Alien Trilogy for PSOne were actually pretty decent, but I loved Alien Vs. Predator.

The Alien license seems perfect for video games, but so few companies can do it right. I'm hoping Sega can.